Author's Note: To understand this and one of the other poems in this short series, it would probably help to know that my mother died of cancer two years ago.

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I have worn a shroud of tragedy so long
I am invisible.
Who once has lost
can lose again.
So, what care you for me?

You wallow in your pettiness
and see nothing but yourselves.
Those who have cried, feel;
but for the rest, they are cold.

Heartless I may seem
in my unresponsiveness.
But banal politeness is nothing
and it is your own hearts
that are lost.

I will not let you dignify my pain.