Life is easy

Like swimming around in the pool

Sure... Sometimes you get splashed

But it's nothing you can’t handle.

Then years go by and things get harder

The pressures of the divorce,

The process of losing your best friend

And staying afloat is a little harder

You’re in a lake now,

Swimming against the gentle waves boats leave behind.

Its harder, but it’s manageable.

Then life hits.

Now you lose everything

All friends 

All hope

Whatever innocence you had left

Ripped away by his cruel hands.

Questioning life, yourself, your sanity

Keeping it inside, staying strong for the family breaking around you.

Its fine.

They don’t need to know.

They don’t need to know that you are treading water

In the middle of the ocean

During a hurricane.

They don’t need to know that every breath of air is a struggle

That the calmness they see is a farce

That their rock amidst the storm is crumbling,

That every time you think your free another wave hits,

pushing you under, stealing your air.

They don’t need to know that you are treading water just for them

Or that you’re arms are getting tired.