Image by Robert Pastryk from Pixabay

Member-only story

Solitary Poem

Steven Clifford

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Alone, we’re self-nesting in the hollowness of the soul’s tree

where roots dare not entangle strangers:

a die with sides of theoretical danger

and potential kinship; Whichever lands up—

changes where life’s dominos fall,

collapsing imagined universes in a design to actualize

just one. Could be a shared bed on Sunday in utter idleness,

or homework-aid in comfortable silence,

or a dysfunctional marriage with a troubled kid in between,

leading to divorce at forty.

Never mind the gamble! Follow the BluJay,

through the tree-hollow to the selfishness’ parade,

celebrating privacy, in the trunk’s inner spaciousness:

a world of hanging blankets

where one’s flashlight illuminates games and books;

And then gather beginnings that have withered before blossoming

and piece them together to build a nest inside oneself.

The internalizing Rubik’s cube rearranges our personal colors

into a pleasing uniform,

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