LONELY POEM

I’m lonely in the sense that everyone knows

my name but no one wants to say it. I just wish

someone would ask me what I’ve wanted all along:

to live in a lake & never grow taller than the water.

To pronounce myself as a family of coral.

But I am lonely as forever, lonely as infinite,

as natural sequences, as order, as Google.

I do take comfort in the lack of a lonely growth;

I can’t wake up to more lonely unhoused bones.

Everyone I’ve ever met has their own least favorite elegy.

Mine tastes like soap in my throat & lives forward

& forward like a wheel goes around its axle. I’m okay!

I’m still sad, though. Say hello if you pass me on the streets.

We can talk about disappearing. We can lay on the floor & dream

of becoming black holes. In my favorite someday, I meet someone

who recognizes me instantly. It’s ridiculous, but beautiful.