Hidden Tears

Don't tell my mother that I cried again tonight After a twelve-hour

shift beneath fluorescent lights She thinks Australia is everything I dreamed She

doesn't know how lonely this life can be I send her photos

with a smile on my face

Standing in places I don't belong

I tell her everything is going great But the truth is getting

harder

to hold on

Don't tell my mother I eat alone Or that some nights I

stare at my phone Waiting for a call from a different time

zone Missing a place I once called home

Don't tell my father I nearly gave up When the rent was

due and I ran out of luck I promised I'd make them

proud one day So I hide my pain and carry it away

I missed Losar, I missed family prayers I missed the birthdays and

the laughter there

While everyone gathered around the fire I was working overtime,

exhausted and tired The mountains of Bhutan still visit my dreams The

rivers, the temples, the familiar scenes

Then I wake up to a rented room And another morning chasing

survival too

They see the dollars,

they don't see the cost The years we spend feeling broken and

lost They see the destination,

not the road Or the weight of carrying a family's hope Don't

tell my mother I break down sometimes When homesickness hits in the

middle of the night I hear her voice and suddenly I'm weak

Because home is the one thing money can't bring

Don't tell my father I'm still afraid That I'm pretending to be

brave He sacrificed so much for me Now failure feels too heavy

to speak I

came here chasing a better life But nobody warned me about the

sacrifice The distance grows with every year

And the people I love are getting older there

One day I'll return,

if fate allows And sit beside them somehow

But time keeps moving while I'm away

And that's the part that breaks me every day

So don't tell my mother how much I miss home Or how

empty success can feel alone Tell her I'm strong,

tell her I'm okay Even if I cried before work today And

if she asks whether I'm happy here

Tell her yes, and hide the tears Because the hardest thing about

leaving home Is pretending you don't want to go back

The money comes

The years disappear

And home gets farther away