Loneliness

The perpetrators

Are innocent

They are the loneliest of them all

Perhaps in the ads, the porn, the billboards

The movies, the lights, and the smiles

In the people they fuck

They see for a moment

What they want to have

Company

Before they return home

Alone

To heat their dinner

That they bought from the frozen isle

Of Costco or the Co-op

Biting into chunks of food still icy

As they turn on the tv and celebrate

The marriage commercial they made that day

With the rest of the team

Scattered around the city

Eating frozen meals

Alone

Eager to get back to work tomorrow

A face they dislike is a face at least

Thinking they marketed love

When they marketed their own fear

The fear of every scum, drunkard, saint, and normal soul

Gestating

In the womb of every society

Of being alone

Of losing the people we have

Of not finding anyone

To love

Or to hate

Of our children not answering our calls

Of our pets dying

Before we wither away

With no one to see us die

In a home infested with money

In a home broken with poverty

Or on the park bench outside

Hours after midnight

When everyone else is sleeping

Alone

Let them know love exists

Only to distract from loneliness

Let them know it is a blessing

To die with nobody disturbing us

Let them know gently

They are lonely too