A Poem: Alone

Alone is when raindrops tap songs on the shingles
tiny reminders that there is a world outside the window.
Flannel shirts under thick sweaters
cold hands wrapped around hot mugs
and soundtracks playing quietly
under the sound of tapping keys.

Alone is the peace in solitude
and the company of  a cat.
The blanket around your shoulders
The grey clouds swaddling the town.

It is thinking of who isn't there
and where you aren't
and where you should be
where you want to be.

The absence of that person's smile
You know.
That person you just thought of
who isn't there,
but you want them to be.

Alone is in a sea of faces
where none of them notice
and none of them care.

But alone is still in that serenity
of your own breath
and the worn softness of an old quilt.
It is silence
the purgatory of the troubled heart
There is life and love in alone
because alone is nothing to fear.