Lovesick

Quietly, I say,
“You told me in the letter
you left me that you

were choosing a man over me.
I don’t understand.”

And you say back to me,
voice rusted with age-old pain,

“I lied to you, and I’m sorry.
The reason I wanted to put there but
just couldn’t
was

that I didn’t want you to have to deal
with such a faulty person.”

And with that,
my heart melts.