Friendship and Its Limits

I see you as you blankly go around
Picking up her things, one by one
Stacking them up like so many newspapers
Forgotten on the porch

I see your eyes, but I don’t see you in them

Your hopelessness sears through my chest
As you painfully toss over your shoulder
“This is it, she won’t take me back”
And I try to respond and I fail, inadequate

You stop by the bed I am lying on with
Head draped backwards off the edge
To place a feverish palm on my forehead
Just for a moment, we look at eachother and
My tongue seems too big for my mouth
Useless, unmoving

And then you go, arms full of sorrow and memories unfulfilled
And as I watch the door close upside-down, I think
If being your friend is not enough to cheer you up
I wish I could be more