The thing about
prolonged loneliness
especially as a child
is that eventually you
blur
the lines of understanding
and feel as though there is
something
that is fundamentally
broken
about you and has rendered
you unlovable
so you value those around you too much
and if and when they leave
you are brought back to all the
pain and confusion that came when your
father left on valentine's day,
a month and a half into the new
millennium
and hurtled into his own future
leaving you in the
Texas dust.