Death of My Salesmen

A eulogy for all my sickly men
Who teased their hearts and left themselves for dead.
No charming boy could spare himself this pen
—A lover girl whom he so quickly fled.

I mourn that bitter, sad, untimely end
When all the things that he himself had said
Reflected back, demanding he pretend
His hopes were mine, not visions he had led.

A faulty promise burrowed in bone deep
‘Til guilt bled out and asked for food to eat.
He fed it full with lies he could not keep 
Insisting still it was about my need.

Then as he lay with heart detached from head
A victim of his self-determined sin
He asked me quick if I might be his friend
And save him now from all the shame within.

I grieve the men who never could believe
I’d love them well if they hadn’t sold to me.