Parting by C.B.

I don't think you care,
that I don't love you like that and
I wish that I did, but you don't
love me either
and I slip my ring off my finger.

Cicadas screaming in the trees,
echoing in the silence,
of this almost empty house.
You lying on the bed,
staring at the ceiling,
a look of anger, or maybe pain this time.
And I slip my ring off my finger.

Torment hangs in the air.
You say that God hates me now---
that I have broken a promise,
that I have broken a vow,
And I slip my ring off my finger.

A piece of you and I,
as big as the univers,
is swinging in the back yard,
and my love goes out to him,
and your love goes out to him,
and even as we share the same pain,
I slip my ring off my finger.

It is time to become two instead of one,
A mother and a baby,
a father and a son,
we will be a family even though our marriage is done,
and I slip my ring off my finger.

I give you a kiss and pat your back
and now that the last of the boxes are stacked
you kiss the baby, and then kiss me back,
and salute me, as you sigh, and walk through the door.

And I put my ring in it's velvet box

And shut it.