Loneliness

air still as a breath being held

               vast across a span of nothingness

                            white ground runs with gray sky

                                     dull light so bright it hurts

                                               my eyes I shut them

                                                       relentless ringing in ears

                                                                     stand stiff and still

                                                                                my life is the color

                                                                               of the backs of eyelids

                                                                      listen to the funeral 

                                                          in your brain

                and try not to feel

                                       the knife in your gut

                          the taste of copper on tongue

                 a clenched heart

 in the cold light of day