What if loneliness
didn’t have to be
the end of the world?
What if, instead,
it could be a beginning?
An invitation to admire
strangely beautiful scenes
and just wonder,
for the joy of it,
about everything.
*
Today, I cried
at the beach.
I craved a lover
to sit with me,
but my sadness
sat down instead.
It said,
I’m here,
but there’s more.
Look, don’t you see?
*
Why don’t you try
making a sky
inside of the lake?
Just kick the sand
from the water floor,
and watch cumulus clouds
dance and dissolve.
*
Don’t you see
those kids
swimming
and smiling,
loud and full,
playing
and being enough?
Don’t age out
of what keeps you free.
Be goofy,
and hop with the waves.
Become young
as often as you want.
*
Have you ever
considered the people
with stories that live
on the other side
of the water?
Write novels
inside your head
about their favorite socks
(the raggedy ones
with a few holes),
that thing they said yesterday
and wish they could forget,
which people dependably
call them on their birthdays,
and which folk
they trusted to stay
only to quit their promise?
*
Maybe like companionship,
imagination is medicinal
for the lonely.
Maybe after life grows old,
you’ll realize
that some memories remain
while others wash away.
Maybe these lonely moments
are far more than thirst.
Look around you.
Look inside you.
See, you are full.
Roots & Hope 