The Longings of Lonliness: Published on bayart.org

 

Working against the constant spank of summer,

Loneliness negotiated a groove into the hard rock

Although it seemed so pointless.

I do not know how this project was initiated.

Nor do I know how he came to inhabit this mountain top;

But I did watch him grind skull against earth’s flesh

The nose hoeing, the teeth raking

Digging himself a trench

All the while wondering if dust would dissipate.

He gathered me in the well of his eyes

And carried me in his knapsack

Through the monotony of the years

Thirsting for company beneath the Sun

And my infinite potential for evaporation.

Loneliness ate stone to stave off thirst,

And fueled his weary body with aspirations

Dreaming of mountain meadows, of pine groves,

Of honey suckle that hearkens the buzz of bees

Honing in on the hive of the sweetest fruit—

Dreaming dreams that could even saturate me

As he set me into this trench.

Indeed, time had tackled Loneliness

Leaving his mountaintop to rot.

So the mountain folk flocked to his hillside

Sobbing and moaning and beating back midnight

With a bonfire that could burn the desert.

Now sitting in this trench,

I know it is time to bring Loneliness home

So down the mountainside I flow, an incision,

Grass and brush gathering around my bank

As I beckon the dear, the bear, the fowl.

And this is where I’ve come to flow past you, my love,

Where I have witnessed your garden

Where your soil holds me like a sponge

While you sit sniffing lilacs and lilies.

Here you walk through the rhododendron and dogwood

And I beckon perpetually against your door,

Presenting myself to you, lapping

With all the longings of Loneliness