The smell of her flower perfume

provided needed comfort.

Her probing eyes searched my soul in the dimly lit room.

I felt uncomfortable telling her.

A sympathetic ear was nice.

Her questions made me uncomfortable

and raised my conciseness.

Hot tears of guilt and sadness ran down my face;

thoughts of my children flashed in and out of my mind

as I attempted to place the words in the proper order.

Her question of suicide tormented me as

I saw the reflection of a razor in my mind’s eye.

The waking to sobs when I was eleven,

the wind blowing the fall leaves as we buried uncle Alan,

the pain it caused my mother.

Suicide could never be an option.

As I sat looking down at the gray carpet

her statement "I see you’re in pain."

The tears held back the laughter

as the words "I see you’re in pain"

echoed in my head.

04/21/2003

Posted on 04/21/2003
Copyright © 2025 Derek Gregory