How are you?
I? I have written 20 poems about being alone.
But writing still feels like self-flagellation and torture
Torture; Do you know criminals in ancient Greece were locked in metal bulls and literally heated to death?
My body is the bull and my soul is challenging it everyday
I live in ancient Greece
By that I mean, every day there is a new tragedy
But my clothes are not made of sheets
And I am reading this poem on my phone
Phone? I pick up my phone and text my friends “I am alone”
They say “What?”
“I don't know. I am alone.”
They say, “Oh come on, there are bigger problems now than being alone”
The Oxford English Dictionary defines alone as “having no one else present.”
But are you truly alone if there are 65 people on your class’s zoom call?
Laptop screens and bad dreams merge so well,
You never know if your wet eyes are the product of grief or blue light screen exposure.
Know. Know.
I don’t know. It’s like, it’s like, it’s like I….
The Oxford English Dictionary defines alone as “having no one else present.”
No one
So I scream and scream and scream
And it's so magical because no one can hear me.
I loop a coil of infinity around my throat
Do you know that an infinity looks like an 8 that had fallen down and could not get up
And just wants it to be over…….
Wait! What was the question again?
How are you?
How am I?
I? I have written 21 poems about being alone.
Oh wow!