I stumbled into this freezing night with this ache.
It was a small dissatisfaction at first, a “Damn. It’s cold.”
And “Why’s the moon gotta be dark like that tonight?”
I kicked at the stones
Knocked a few loose pebbles quite a fair distance
But somewhere in the silence
The dullness grew and covered me
And before I knew it, I was weeping
And I couldn’t tell you why.
Was it for a love lost or un-pursued?
A dream I let pull loose from my fingers?
It’s like my heart started with a case of the sniffles
And by the end of my shift, it was wrestling with terminal cancer.
I hope that what troubles me here about my heart
Is not contagious and that I will take it with me
When I go
Or better yet, I could leave it in the long dark corridor on my way away
Where it can shrink and shrivel and disappear.
If I have to, I’ll nurse it under my covers
And hope that it flies away in my dreams.
