The Weight of Expectation

Last night's argument clung to the air like fog,

a raw edge of tension, a thickening smog.

A friend's words echoed, they landed like stones,

what it means to be strong, to carry our bones.

The shadow of a man by a dim streetlight,

flickers of doubt, the wrong and the right.

What do we pay for the weight that we bear?

Chasing a ghost, always needing to care.

In the stillness, the silence, the cost starts to show,

how much we sacrifice, how far we can go.

The price of our pride, the burden of shame,

we wear it like armor, yet it feels all the same.