He shuts off
down
in.
Grieving.
As pain slowly covers
encompasses him,
he tries to make his world smaller
manageable
controllable,
but it still screams back in his face,
reminding him it’s there,
and it can't be contained
that easily.
He tries
to limit the control
the pain has,
slowly
building
barriers
as we work
to break through the obstacles he places around him,
to find him –
be with him
through everything
he doesn’t want us to see
know
experience.
He tries to protect us
from it all
while protecting himself
from feeling weak
or needy.
But he isn’t either of those.
He has it backward.
We just need
him.