melancholic summer

I cannot fathom
all my loneliness

park bench sitting in the shade
beneath a long-limbed tree
outside the train station

several trees dotted about a field
slanting down towards a street
dividing it from the one above

bus trundling to stop outside
a large supermarket
and picking up a man
with carrier bags full of booze

the images flit by
on a bright summer’s day
where all is lovely and serene
even the mumbling drunk
on the afternoon bus

and yet I slog through
stomach-turning pain
as if aware that Just behind it all
is gaping japing nothingness

and me
floating through it like an island