you wear it but why?
you think she's coming back,
that she might miraculously think you
God
and that would suddenly change everything.
wring that out of your head,
it constricts,
you think it liberates, it frees you

but the young boy goes on
frolicking in the fields of mind
with his beloved then-love,
and the old man watches with
foresight, sees the little one
crumple so weakly to the ground
so distraught and upset
so unknown to the world's injustice,
we all learn one day
take it off for just one day

she won't know