What worse sentence
can the world pronounce
upon your soul
than to wake up in
a silent room
alone?

Year after year,
that sudden waking jolt
of pure loneliness.

Fight it.

You know the drill:
coffee, cigarettes,

Bach, Mozart,
Vivaldi or Telemann
to drive away
the quiet despair.

Sometimes, success.

But sometimes nothing works.

You are just an aging man
alone in an apartment
wondering how you got there,

wondering if anything
ever comes next.
~   mce