Abandoning Pain
She wears her pain like a stole of pure glass
The glinting fabric distracting from
Penetrating shards snarling beneath it.
She struts with agonizing precision
Portraying an ease she never feels
A carelessness born of sensing too much.
As the torment crescendos, fevered pitch
Assaulted from a new direction:
“Friends” who know this will pass, another come.
Sparkling eyes and a painted-on smile
Tears she can’t shed lest her public mask
Melt like wax left in the attic too long.
Normally she peals off the stole at night
Letting the loss ooze from the holes left,
Sobbing, desperate for sleep that can’t come.
Tonight she hugs it tight, ripping her flesh
She can almost see her broken heart
Merging with the red water in the tub.
Pain flies softly away on her last breath.
June 25, 2018
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