Perpendicular

With all this weight
on my shoulders
I can't stand up straight.

I am the room's fifth corner.
You stretch yourself along my back -
I am perpendicular.

You give me this right-angled form
and I am blinded by a hood of hair
as my eyes burn into the floor.

These heavy arms hang
like pendulums,
tiring of time's demands.

But I will shoulder your burden;
your woes as my own.
I will let my skin shrink under your words ...

Because, like you, we know I will never learn.