There was a time I would have shed my tears

Blurry and bloodshot ugliness

Brilliant blue hid behind broken capillaries

Tears dancing between my freckles

Like a creek across polished pebbles

Winding their way to my thin pressed lips

Somehow the salt slips in

But it's not the bitterness that churns my stomach

It's how hard I clamp down to repress these emotions

Teeth chip and grind through clenched jaw

Fingertips bite bringing blood to the surface of flushed skin

My whole body fights against itself

To repress the flood upon my face

Self-destruction to maintain the illusion

That boys don't cry.