My bodyguards

Grief, despair, and guilt...

They fill me up and surround me,

Like hulking bodyguards,

They keep others at bay.

"Always so serious,"

"Everything's depressing,"

"Just can't take a joke,"

"I want to run away."

Well, this is how I am,

Take it or leave it,

And if you leave, just know

I know how to be alone...

Alone through great sorrow,

Alone in solitary vigil,

Alone in darkest despair

When not a single light shone.

I just wish I could sleep,

But when I lay in bed,

Images of pain and death

Play and repeat in my brain.

If someone would listen

And put an arm of comfort

Around my weighted shoulders,

Perhaps that would ease the pain.