C for Crying

I was going to slack off on C which is the real letter of today’s April A to Z Challenge. But then I read this and it pushed me to write what I did. Not even a tenth as good but it is poetry.

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I stopped at 16
It was time to leave the tears behind
But I really only pulled them in
They ebbed and settled under my skin
In goosebumps when a different him touched me
The tears I didn’t shed for him, rose up and whispered SUBSTITUTE
And heat blisters on my back spelt COMPROMISE
Creams and lotions pushed them away
and I bought myself a new pen that day
So now they come pouring forth
Like pushy, bashful children
in inky stains and paper cuts
Still, my pen can’t take the tears
of twenty years
So the older ones, slower, sluggish
Stay behind to hold on and die
In the graves of stretch marks
on my body
But I pay them no heed
I have a lot of crying left to do
Enough to last a lifetime
This is just April

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Follow the April 2015 AtoZ HERE.