LONELINESS
f r a n z   w r i g h t

Say you awake
in the night
abruptly alone
in the midst of addressing
vast stadiums . . .

Or at an intersection windows
shattered your forehead
leaning on the horn
a crowd materializing a light
snow beginning

Like the taste of alcohol to children

No

That with which there is nothing to compare

Say you have no friends, or
say you have to go to sleep

To see your friends

There

It's not so bad
the stitches itch
where they removed
your rage
is all

Where they removed
those thoughts

And no one
misses them

After several weeks
everyone learns
how to tie his own shoe

You get a little doll that looks like you

From Ill Lit: Selected & New Poems, © 1998 ~ publisher Oberlin College Press, Ohio

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