to loneliness i seem
bound: it gave me
a soft kiss on the cheek
one night, then just as I could make out its face
scuttled off and I chased
and it hid, within me,
and I chase.
"come out come out
wherever you are", i shout
with the child-like playfulness
sawn off my bones once-upon-a-time
but loneliness feels like it's everywhere
     and the lonely are everywhere
     if one sees being nowhere as a place

my calls turn into a fluttering
fading echo bouncing
off these four walls i'm locked
between, a timbre that I taste
with my ears, and my tongue - bitten
for too long - tries to carve out
a new heart for itself
this time not out of stone.