BY DREW POOLE
I realize my pain when the crowd disperses.
I am an empty desert sky, and the sun sets;
At dark’s inception, my heart reverses,
And joy my name forgets.
In this autumn of the day,
Like the nighttime tide my emptiness swells.
Singularity like a lost bird brays,
And I fall behind a curtain of all is well.
The woods of my soul are dark and deep,
Smiles cloak me like rags.
Like a winter sun my conscience falls fast asleep
As friends come and pass.
But to all I wave goodbye in this approaching finish time,
For when solitude falls like thunder, your company— none others— is mine.
PHOTO BY DREW POOLE
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