Serious Loneliness
by Michael Doyle

Singled out across the nation
Tripped up in social isolation
Attempts at conversation and vulnerability
Seem at times to be beyond our capability

Curtness played out with damages done
Meanness rounded before niceness begun
Seeking each other in loneliness we've seen
Only confirms that people can be mean

CQ calls sent out to be wished upon strangers
Though each of us are alerted to the dangers
We try to receive but instead push away
Hoping maybe tomorrow will bring its better day

With lights turned down perhaps too low
Neon flashes thrill with their empty glow
Lost up in the crystalline banality of a stranger's mind
It becomes harder to dream of what we might find

Loneliness leads only to more loneliness
And all the world seems to be turned amiss
Arming ourselves into extreme separation
We fall into the blurred disgrace of a lonely nation

(c) July 29, 2021  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved