Aunt May, what’s it like to have loved and lost?

"I'll tell you, kid. 

It's like catching a brick with your stomach,

Like fighting a fever sprawled out on a tin roof,

Like finding a needle in a slice of lemon cake,

With your mouth. 

It's like going barefoot for a walk in the snow,

Like hiking in Sudan with only mustard to drink. 

Like finding maggots in an open wound,

Like pushing the Q-tip too far into your ear. 

It is the loneliest feeling in the world, 

The most hollow hole in your heart. 

I swear you wouldn't even believe it,

You just can't imagine how bad..."

She sat there then with the cigarette burning away between her bony fingers. 

"If it's really so bad, then why would you want to love at all?"

 She turned to me, with the tiniest hint of a smile in her eyes. 

"Come now, enough talk, time for bed."