I treated you so well! I ran my fingers against you, through you, caressed you in every delicate way. Perhaps we never kissed, but is it so wrong to love for the sake of beauty? I massaged you in the shower, making sure to reach every part of you with lather. I never left any of your thick, deep auburn strands dry. I sacrificed for you. I turned down jobs because they said you could never see me there. I suffered through insults because people said I looked silly with you. And now...you're still leaving.

My friends tell me not to worry, because there are plenty of ways to cope. I thought of watching a movie, but then I see so many men with...you know? I see your visage beginning to fade, the follicles of your existence turning away from me. Why do you hold me in contempt? Did I ever wrong you? Did I ever pull you too forcefully? I was so sure that I cherished you with all the love a man could give. Was it because of her? Did she make you jealous with her deep dark hair and auburn eyes that could melt a man into the pettiest of things. She is smart, but she could never replace you! Not you, who I have known so many more years. Not you who draped my face in love when I wept. Not you who soaked up my tears when that girl broke up with me.

So, this is goodbye then. Every strand of you must leave individually, and I am forced to watch you turn away. Before you go, let me just say that she loves you too. She loved the way she could run her fingers through you, and you would twirl around them as she scratched my scalp. She loved how long you got, and how dark you got after I stood out of the pool. She loved to nuzzle against you, knowing that I would take good care of you. And I loved all of that too! I know it must be difficult for you, so take your time. There is no need to fall all out at once. Stay a while so that I can look at you in the mirror and be proud to be the one wearing you, just a bit longer. Then, when you must go, let us part ways with hearts unbroken. Oh, how I will cherish you in the next era of my life, cherish you as infinitely as any man could.

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