Loneliness Here To Stay
He saw the man sitting on the park bench.
He looked so lonely it made his teeth clench.
He wished he could wipe out all loneliness.
If he could he wouldn’t stop at only this.
But, how could such a thing ever be done?
A general solution may not work for some.
Probably what each one needed was a friend.
He couldn’t be friend to all. Why pretend.
Maybe each lonely person needed God.
That solution would not be too odd.
But, not everyone wants a religious life.
Though it would help them get things right.
Finally, he reached a final conclusion.
There is no universal fix. It’s a delusion.
Now he was becoming depressed himself.
He wished he had magic,—- like an elf.
Wait a minute!! He just had an idea.
One didn’t come often. Not like diarrhea.
If lonely, you could read poetry & books.
It would be great if that’s all it took.
Creating their own world, they wouldn’t be lonely.
They could read and write. Create a pony.
Create an imaginary world that had friends.
Maybe that could work. It all depends.
Would it be enough to delete the lonely feeling?
Or would it turn them into a different being?
Someone lost in the world of imagination.
Getting back may take some creation.
I had better lay this one to rest.
I think that would be for the best.
There is no universal cure.
If there are people, the lonely will be here.
———————————————R. W. Johnson—–(2015)