By SterlingRose
Date: 2003 Jun 14
Comment on this Work
[[2003.06.14.08.03.8974]]

An 'OLD' SunBurn

Brushing me off
like a small inconvenience
that tickled and tingled him
but not enough to give him pleasure
only irritating his skin.
He did it so gently
that I never felt offended
or hurt.
As a horse flits his tail
to remove a fly from
his mane
only to return again
and do the same.
Eventually I tired
and realized
it was never going to happen.
Many years later
he tried to rekindle
what never was
only to find
the same itching irritation
like an old sunburn
that has turned to flake
sloughed away
like dead skin.
I hung on like an amusement
to entertain his depression
and loneliness,
all the while knowing
that again there were
reasons beyond our consciousness
that prevented us
from being together.
Suddenly -
when his life took a turn
and the end was in sight
he threw me hints, invitations,
propositions and proposals
which I prentended not to notice
and subtly ignored.
Continuing to write him
with poems, jokes, and friendly lore,
silly memorobilia, and forgotten nostalgia
of our families, friends, and more.
His escalating depression
weakened his gentle might
it began to rule his every thought
until he took his life.
And I am left to wonder
had I beckoned at his call
his last hopeless "hurrah"
could I have stopped it all.
This futile waste of lifeblood
his tormented apathy
could I have helped prevent him
was It pain received from me?