solitude

May 12, 2023

solitude lives inside me as it lives inside you

every time it rains i see its face in the distance

mocking me for staying inside

when i cry i remember how it felt to be held

and then i scream

 

i scream

i yell

i stare at you

until my eyes turn grey

and you don’t leave

 

solitude walks behind me

i try to brush him away

a ghost in this land

as i am in this body

 

he breathes and the sun sets

he coughs and the oceans dry up

he cries and i slap him in the face

he’s lonely write your name and you’ll know why

 

my body begs for you

my mind whispers you never loved me

my heart pleads that i listen to you

and not me

 

i hate solitude

it’s a shapeshifter

able to become love

to become the ocean we were looking at the first time i saw you

there are multiple versions of myself

in this space between us

each one looks erased and misplaced

each one looks like a drawing

each one weeps for solitude

 

Kiley Woods is a creative writing student at Eckerd College in Florida. She works as a news editor for the student newspaper, The Current, and as a volunteer reader for the Eckerd Review literary magazine. Her work has been published in Second Story Journal, Pomegranate Lit, Diet Water, Portals Magazine, and elsewhere.

 

Featured image by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

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