
In edifices uninviting and nondescript
we reluctantly contemplate the pandemic,
widespread yet incommunicable,
of loneliness, pneumatic sinkhole
sundering I from Thou,
a societal toxemia manifest in the blood work
of a languishing generation.
Quarantine is the disease;
we agonize from throes, terrified
and ashamed to be trembling
from an angst existential, from the epiphany
that our center, after all, will not hold.
Let us concur to barter surrenders.
Covenant with me to bridge divides
out of mutual compassion;
we are each other’s wardens and liberators both,
and dangle the keys that release
solitude’s hostages from bondage.
How easily greetings rekindle the tinder
of hope, stimulating embers;
transferred warmth enlivens the moribund
and allays the weary
who momentarily disremember
the consummate ache of isolation.
Brandon Marlon is a writer from Ottawa, Canada. He received his B.A. in Drama & English from the University of Toronto and his M.A. in English from the University of Victoria.
His poetry was awarded the Harry Hoyt Lacey Prize in Poetry (Fall 2015), and his writing has been published in 200+ publications in 27 countries. www.brandonmarlon.com
