alone alone alone, comforting permanence of loneliness
the stark separation of home from world, no signal here
and words only seep in through the cracks, the locked doors
and barred windows keep everything out but my fear—
everything out but the crickets and pond frogs, the wind
and cold little hisses under the sliding glass door.
with you with you with you, and all the time alone
is deeply confusing, is deeply confusing, i am deeply
sunk into a worldly stupor: the times, the post, the globe
all spin the stories without my needing to read them.
alone and kept, alone and a companion, each night
the crickets sing i miss you, i love you, i miss you
and each night i know the words are true but the wind
is late and later, soft and softer, the hiss grows slow.