She Cries Herself to Sleep

She cries herself to sleep

when she thinks I am sleeping.

I hear her. Heaving sobs coming

unabated through her bedroom

door. I want to reach out to her and

pick up the pieces of her broken heart,

for she will love again soon.

But any attempt at consoling her

will be rebuffed because I do not

know enough about love.

Or so she thinks. Were it not for

my mother’s encouragement,

I might not have met her father,

the man who lies next to me,

listening to her heart-wrenching sobs

while quietly suppressing his own.