"it's a beautiful day for melancholy,"
she thought,
listening to the rain,
in borrowed sheets,
as it fell lightly
on the other side
of the flimsy-curtained window pane.

intermittent as her heartbeat,
the blackbirds' distant chatter,
gentle beyond notes of nostalgia,
evoked a joy
she couldn't feel,
if not for a faded memory.

a new moon,
the spring equinox,
a solar eclipse -
all together,
all at once.

"a time to celebrate life!"
they said,
insulting in unwanted contrast
as she lay there alone,
in bed with her thoughts,
dark like the clouds
of the year's first rain,
pouring out the secret pain
hidden
in summer's unrelenting light.

swollen and grey,
they held it heavy
in the belly,
until at last they burst,
falling hard,
nearly weightless,
like the tears
from the sky
in her eyes.

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