Not Wanting To Worry You Poem by Elizabeth Miller

Not wanting to worry you, Mum,
I never told you why
Dappled bruises kept appearing on my shins
Why my pens would vanish
Or how the laces on my shoes
Became an angry maze of tangled knots.

You never deduced
Why my hair looked sticky
And would smell so foul
Despite my recent shower
Or why my lunch came home still packed.

That Saturday in town
Perhaps you nearly guessed.
You wondered why I hid behind your heavy coat
And wouldn't speak for hours.
You called me silly.
You did not understand
Because I told you nothing,
Believing that you had
Worries enough of your own.

I was trying to protect you.