POETRY

I Know Loneliness Well

a poem

Photo by M. on Unsplash

I know loneliness well

I know her dark secrets
her longing
her aching

I know her dreary shape
her heavy sighs
her slumped shoulders
her dusty scent
her stale taste

she wraps herself around me
like an unwanted blanket
she’s hard and gloomy
not cozy or comfortable

I know loneliness well

her feelings of separateness
her deep desire
to be touched
to be held
to be known

her visits
wax and wane
sometimes brief
other times extended

when I sense her arrival
her unpleasant taste on my lips
her unwelcome smell in my nose

I sigh
I slump
she’s back

yet every time she departs
I feel a glimmer of hope
that I’m inching closer
to the…