Through Her Eyes

She sees him standing across the room

shoulders broad, carrying more than just muscle.

The world says men don’t break,

but she see’s the hairline cracks in his laughter, the pauses between his words.

He is careful with his heart, like it’s a fragile heirloom no one taught him how to hold.

He worries about saying too much, or not enough

about being too forward, or too invisible.

And she knows

aside from all of the myths told about men,

that he is just a human, searching for a place to set his burdens down without being told that he's weak.