Isolation isn’t only social
but a sense of the invisible—
of being on a fragile planet
hidden in vast nightscape
as fast, chill winds beyond
my broken window wail,
filling bitter, dreary dreams
with the scent of burning
woodlands somewhere distant
but close enough to threaten.
Don’t come near me—
just another mask, you are
hiding something other
than a warning. I wouldn’t
know a friend who faced me
in my personal recession;
while there is no profit in fear,
my tearful stock of self-
regard now has been
displaced. I am therefore less
than lonely, only one more
soul fading from the earth.
