I wrote the poem below the last time I felt sad about being alone.

Yes, alone doesn't have to be lonely and others may envy my solitude but, especially when my kids are gone, there are times I would give almost anything to hear a voice shatter the stillness. Especially if that were a loving man's voice, speaking my name.

Chant the mantra: I will always be alone. I need no one else to make my house a home. Alone is better. Solitude strengthens and confirms my commitment to remain alone... not that anyone wants me to change my mind anyway.

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Coming home

Swimming through the darkness of the lake
Struck suddenly with a need to be somewhere else
Circling slowly up the murky beds
Searching for the place to be

Dimly and from far away comes the sound
A familiar song pregnant with the promise of home
Circling slowly up the murky beds
Searching for the place to be

The sent of destiny awaiting takes hold of her
Fired by the knowledge of the place she needs to be
Swimming swiftly through the dappled beds
Aiming for the place to be

Dreaming of rocky beds and clear, nourishing currents
Vibrantly alive with the process of doing what she needs to do
Stopped in her quest by a dam
Wondering if this is the place to be

The salmon leaps high and strong to fall upon the dam
Bruised and battered by twigs and mud she rolls back to the lake
Poisoned by the promise of song
Knowing the place to be is gone

The song heard was just water slipping through a dam
The sent she smelled was remnants of her home and bed long buried
By a generation of fertile, life-giving silt
The stream has turned inward

The laughing brook is now a deep, still pond and home to others
Something silky, lithe and beautiful swims in water warmed by stillness
The salmon hangs motionless outside
Dying gravid with destiny unfulfilled
Copyright © 2006 Carol Martin.
All Rights Reserved.