Jessie and Charley

I've never seen such concern in her eyes.
Tears swell like tides. Subtle. Overwhelming.
She's unable to keep up the disguise
Of the fun-time friend who can't see the thing
Consuming him slowly from inside-out.
She wants to be the strength that he's missing
To learn what his sickness is all about,
As though knowledge could stop him from pissing
Away the life that she finds so precious,
That he's escaping like an old burden.
It's too late, though, when she tries to discuss
'Cause he wrote these words to her in the end--
     "Don't call it love when it looks like pity
     Fucking give up on trying to save me."