You Promised You'd Stay Here With Me

You always wear neutral colors

You are a forest of gray and brown

And your bed is always empty

Elizabeth was right

You keep your guard up higher than a castle wall

And your hands are always buried in your pockets

I know what happened

On the grounds of the school where you met

When you were carrying three months of salary spent

And I know how she found out

And how her father would never allow such a poor family name claim his own

So I know she never showed

And how you stayed for hours (like a mariner trapped at sea)

When dawn crawled into the sky

You dragged your body home

Collapsing, at last, alone in your bed

You woke after little sleep

Shook the weight off your shoulders

And drove yourself down to the harbor

And you walked onto the pier

Where the wind howled and shared your grief

Like it was part of your body

You slowly removed the diamond ring from inside your pocket

And you buried it at sea