Helping Out

What can I do to help you?
How can I make life easier,
appease your beast, quiet your fears?
If I wait on you, serve you
in your easy chair, meet your needs —
your perceived needs — I can’t address
the monstrous ones, the fears.
But if I comfort you, assure you,
hide the fearful? Surely that helps.
Who does it help? If I ignore my needs,
you think as little of me
as I think in my fears,
when your every wish comes first
before my basic requirements.
Perhaps you look stronger that way,
with me as your servant, but we both know
it’s a lie.
My helping out serves neither you
nor me when my kindness hides
the elephant in the room.