Work Text:
I never realised that ‘Tired’ could mean so many things.
That it’s sharp angles could be used to describe hardened warriors, steeled against the dawn. In the same way it’s gentle curves leant themselves to lazy afternoons. To sighing trees that encompassed glades and hid wide yawns.
I don’t think I could fathom how 5 letters so perfectly preserved the full ache of overused muscles, rewarded after an honest days work yet also conjured the pain of a clock ticking, with dry, strained eyes willing the hands to move faster.
It didn’t occur to me how ‘Tired’ could be a synonym for desperate. For the overwhelming surge of helplessness. The immeasurable sadness in acceptance. And the inevitable flinch of repetition.
It is both incredibly wonderful and frustratingly unhelpful that one word can bend its meaning into so many shapes.
Because when I say
“I’m tired”
And you say
“me too”
I wonder if that’s true.