*Ahead is some seriously melodramatic, 2am poetry nonsense. It’s heartfelt, but it’s almost regressive, like I rediscovered my inner teenager.*

A Single Tear

I shed my tear,
Permitting a solitary tear to leave the outside corner of my eye.

This one tear I will shed
For the kisses that are now no more than skipping stones grazing the surface of a pond.
For your back, turned out and away.
Never was an issue, as I sleep the same way,
Until now, as you stopped turning back to me.

For your instant, measured breath.
For you gentle, determined deflection.

One tear rolls down my cheek
As I lie, wide awake and alert
Wondering what you intend to do with twelve uninterrupted hours of sleep,
Wondering how my “foxiness” dissipated so fast,
Replaced by bland, unchanging pleasantries
Where I am another “baby,” or nothing named at all,
Another memento of the Midwest, already packed away in cargo for deployment.

One tear, but I cannot spare another.
They wait in reserve, as I retain hope for the new day.
And I cannot waste too much of my precious sorrow
On a thankless, hollow bed.