The American Poetry Review

TWO POEMS

Meditation on Isolation

This poem is for everyperson who will neverread it either by choiceor circumstance I writeit in silence wherethe most realparts of our liveslive like a shoe lostin an alley or an emptyboat in a black sea butmore like the fallenleaf on the other sideof the planet you neverknew had grown inthe gardenthe small town thatto you does notexist nor the womanwho dug the hole witha spoon given by hermother on the eveof her wedding herown life no morea mystery than thisone and yet evenin the solitudeof this poem Iam not lonelyeven in thisdarkness at 3:47am the housedark the streetsdark the city darkthe winter treesoutside my windowdark the oceanbehind them so darkthe dead deepbeneath darker stilland yet a manin this same darktouches another mana woman holdsher daughter and intowns we willnever know in fieldsand forests factoriesand farms liveslean into thelight and awayfrom this poemthe one poemwe will neverneed

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