When loneliness comes
you call for another without calling.
When loneliness settles
you pray for someone without blessing.
When loneliness stays
isolation falls like winter's rain
deeply burrowing.
Destitute of humanity
despair comes echoing
when loneliness digs it's moat of disheartened thoughts
you shrivel disponded
cease the point of trying.
When loneliness calls.

quench my thirst rainfall  please
fall to earth
wet my parched tongue
my emotionless thirst
sober on the dune I stand awaiting
scorching absorbing the sun's harshness
I need washed cleansed
stark bald
naked
basic
a dry blown grain of silicon
wasting away
at the whims of
the  wind and sun

A Cold Rain is here

The invading cold rain
Pummels the fall foliage
Punches the dead leaves
Like an angry mob of looters
Stealing color from the trees
Leaving the ground covered with the fallen  
Now bruised and broken underfoot        
Stomped and kicked to the curb
Trampled by the relentless rain

Copyright 2016
Richard L Ratliff

In my entourage
people laugh
I got used to it.

In my center stage
I was the comedian
who never likes
his job.

In my closing remarks
their entertainment
was fulfilled.
I on the other hand
got drained
from my mistakes
turned to be pretty
funny,
never was that
my intention.

you stepped
into my room
last night
quietly watching me dream
the warmth of
your breath
floating towards me

hesitation
as emotions fluctuated
a kaliedescope
all the possibilities,
ever changing

I almost felt
then not...
a moment
when we may have
reconnected
yet
your seperation
from me palpable

eyes shut
my hypervigilance
instinctual
protecting my being
knowing
that by opening
myself to you
I may feel
my heart
breaking
once again*

Copyright © October, 2016.
Christi Michaels.
All Rights Reserved.

Regrets settle on a memory
like dust on an abandoned cobweb
out of reach
to wipe cleanly away.
It's an eye sore
you ignore,
but it's always there
when you try to overlook it.