Out of breath.
Tired and weak.
Step after step,
not to speak.

Secrets she’s kept,
unknown to the world.
Pressure is no air,
suffocating this girl.

Treading along,
to keep ahead of the race.
What people think is wrong.
A mask over her face.

They think they know,
more than she does.
Balancing just for show.
Only because she must.

Buried in all the goals.
Bombarded with expectation.
Dying inside her soul,
crying is an ongoing sensation.

A trophy at her grasp,
a triumphant victory.
A break is all she asks.
The girl she was is history.

She is struggling,
collapsing like a bug.
She begins fumbling,
people leave taking their love.

Will she survive?
Or drop under the heat.
Will anyone want to revive,
the girl who accepted defeat.

Watch her break,
like a bone.
Shatter and shake,
all alone.

Silence she accepts,
it’s her only friend.
Because it doesn’t expect,
more than she can.

Lying through her teeth,
tearing herself apart,
with secrets she will keep.
Torn from the start.

Smashing her own will,
What more can they hunger?
Only so much she can fulfill,
There’s nothing left in her.

A dim light goes black,
an absence in the world.
Would it be so bad,
it minus one little girl.

Yet she keeps on fighting,
A desire like a warrior.
Herself in confining,
Secrets are what strength her.

An ally on her shoulders.
A pep talk through the quiet.
Encouragement is what it told her.
Her brain is defiant.

Watch her stand,
rising through ashes of death.
She decides herself,
That it’s okay to catch her breath.