Loneliness
by Ric Masten
standing by a highway waiting for a ride a bitter wind is blowing keeps you cold inside a line of cars is passing no one seems to care you look down at your body to be sure you are there
sitting in a hotel staring at the wall with cracks across the ceiling and silence in the halls you open up the window and turn the TV on then you go down to the lobby but everybody's gone
and this is loneliness the kind that I have known if you've had times like these my friend you're not alone
so you leave the empty city and go down to the shore you're aching to discover what you're looking for the beaches are deserted in the morning time a solitary figure you walk the water line
come upon a tide-pool and stand there peering in and when you touch the water the circles do begin they lead to where a seabird lies crumpled on the sand so you take a single pebble and hold it in your hand
and this is loneliness another kind Išve known if you've had times like these my friend... you're not alone
you come back up the beaches at the end of day and see how all your footprints have been washed away no... nothing is forever we are born to die so may I say I love you before I say good-bye
I must say I love you before I say good-bye
"LONELINESS" will appear in Ric Masten's latest book, Going Out Dancing. Since February 14, 1999, poet/philosopher RIC MASTEN has been keeping an ongoing account of his battle with Incurable Advanced Metastatic Prostate Cancer from diagnosis to the "Latest Update." He keeps this unique digest in poetry, musings and medical tidbits. Updating as the war goes on. He welcomes calls and correspondence from fellow cancer fighters. Visit his website at: http://www.ric-masten.net/Prostate.Series.html