Because love is painful
and it hurts
and sometimes I don’t know
if I can handle the weight that
it puts on my shoulders --
crippling me.

I see a picture of you
and I don’t know where to go,
My heart stops and
I’m left here, alone.

I, sitting at my table, mindlessly
picking at my spaghetti -- the accordion
billowing a tune
of days long past -- staring
at this music man,
the way his lip doesn’t quiver
when he plays a beautiful song but
no one claps, and I,
wondering, why he plays, every night,
for an audience that does not
listen, and then, considering, perhaps,
he is not playing for
the audience.

I lie in silence
waiting, as time does not wait
for me to catch up --
the sun awakens the sky
but my eyes stay shut.