a strange and lonely place to be

 




the old waitress,
working in an all
night diner, pouring
coffee at 2 a.m. for
the drunks, the lost
and the forgotten
knows

the hospital room
with tiny windows
and a bed filled by
the alienation of
suffering knows

the ghostless streets
glistening in the after-
wash of a cold November's
night rain knows

the stripper who has
been raped by the eyes
of strangers in the naked
asylum of her body knows

the dark corners of
small, dirty room filled
with bottles, pills and
tears of grief as heavy
as gold knows

the dead who lie snugly
in their unexistential
non-angst dont care if
they know-
but at one time they
knew

the walls know

our secerts know

our hearts know

our pain knows

the silence knows...

that this
is a
strange
and
lonely
place
to
be