MY DARLING

I'm driving home tonight. It's a quarter to nine. The DJ is playing some Mason Jennings song on the radio, but I'm not really listening.

And then suddenly I am.

The song is sung from the perspective of a parent who lost their child, Their Darling, in The War. And then suddenly, the tail lights in front of me are blurry. And I'm sobbing. I'm sobbing on the highway. I'm aching because I lost something too. But it wasn't even a son or a daughter. It wasn't even a person. It was just a little tadpole.

But I lost it. And for now, I am hopelessly sad.