Untitled (*NEW*)

Untitled New Poem

I decided not to be a psychologist, therapist, counselor Because I can’t keep other people’s big feelings from impacting my own But now all my friends struggle with depression And I’m the one who always pulls them back from the edge And sometimes all of them come to me at the same time I have extreme emotional empathy And I’m hurtling towards burnout But I can’t stop Can’t take a break Because I love them, and they need me, and WHO ELSE will be the one To talk them off the ledge and keep them here I’m so afraid of failing That I won’t be enough this time That I won’t be able to juggle all of them at once Or I’ll crash and burn before I can keep them all from falling I’ve done this SO. MANY. TIMES. Why does everyone always come to me? Don’t get me wrong, I’m honored And so grateful that they trust me Like I must be doing something right Even though I don’t know what I’m doing, and it’s all instinct And reacting to emotional cues With emotional empathy And compassionate empathy (the need to DO something to help) And this is something I can ACTUALLY DO (And maybe something I’m actually good at?) So I can’t stop won’t stop refuse to ever stop Even if I go down in spectacular burnout flames Because I need this as much as they do And that scares me the most.