A Fourth Ibuprofen by Jeffery Allen Tobin

It slides down like regret,

coated in the aftertaste 

of another sleepless night,

and I wonder if pain is just

another way to measure time.

Morning light fractures through blinds,

each beam a thin reminder

of what I haven’t done,

what I’ve swallowed instead.

The bottle rattles with a kind of finality,

a dull percussion to the day’s beginning,

and I consider—just for a moment—

how easy it is to numb

what I don’t have the strength to face.

But the ache lingers,

not asking for answers,

only company.

Jeffery Allen Tobin is a political scientist and researcher based in South Florida. His extensive body of work primarily explores U.S. foreign policy, democracy, national security, and migration. He has been writing poetry and prose for more than 30 years.