if only i could—
i would make life lighter for all the ones i love.
my heart is strangely built, you know.
my own suffering, i do not mind,
pain pressed against me, i could bear—
my heart, an iron weight
that knows how to carry its own bruises.

but when it comes to my family,
to those i love—
the ones who made me, shaped me—
a single shadow of hardship falls on them,
and my heart shatters like glass.

if i could, i would pull the darkness from their days,
replace it with light.
i would lift the burdens off their weary backs,
turn every worry into a fleeting cloud.
i would put a smile on their faces,
soften the lines...