This isn’t Eleanor Rigby
but I still see all the lonely people.

Young man makes plans
to be better,
but it is so easy
to stop resisting
old temptations,
especially when it feels like
no one really loves you.

Why not do
what the drugs tell you to do
cause a moment of relaxation
is one moment
against a lifetime of rejections.

So, he picks the closest poison
bottles, cans, pills, powders, or joints
to do what everyone was expecting of him.

Each failure is etched in his skin.
One more lost cause to remind him
that he is a worthless *******
so bad that even his dad
and mom don’t want see him.

This isn’t Father McKenzie
praying over his non-existent flock faithfully,
but I still see all the lonely people.

Crippled vet who hasn’t eaten yet
with a small cardboard sign
asks for a sandwich or a dime.

Ten blocks down the line
there is a blind man with a book bag
using his monthly check for
the cheapest hotel he can find.
Until, he runs out of money
then spends the next week and a half
sleeping on the sidewalk.

Or the old lady just off the highway
with a medium size dog,

Or the young man just of the entrance
that takes me up to the Wal-Mart
where I buy enough food to get by
throwing left overs out
at the end of the week.

At the end of the month they are all still lonely.
As am I.