Steve Toth

The more we are what we are
the lonelier it gets
You don’t need to get away
for some time alone
We’re always alone
So why kid ourselves
& act as if we don’t know
We know very well but
don’t like to think about it
because it makes us
feel suddenly abandoned
Just like we know
we’re about to breathe our last
any moment now

Much better to simply accept it
because we’re already
getting light headed
& because there’s suddenly
nowhere to lean
nowhere to stand
The earth seems tiny like a baseball
being shot out of your reality
or a mortal shell
or some kind of nerve gas
What kind of wild story
will our minds make up this time
to explain what
happened to our senses?

When you’re solitary
distances take more out of you
Every cup life hands you
seems ready to shatter
Everybody lives with
the knowledge in their own way
Some get fired up & leave the lights on
Others explode into countless fragments
none of which seem to belong anywhere
& still manage to show only courage
in the face of some
of the strangest things yet encountered
without even the senses
to fully grasp them

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