A Toss Up

Solitude/Loneliness:
two sides, one coin.

Solitude:
sitting silently
on my deck
in the velvet
Tennessee blackness,
alone,
watching thousands
of fireflies
blinking out
some fundamental,
incomprehensible
message.

The glory
of being alone.

Loneliness:
waking up,
alone,
from troubled dreams
of war
and lost love,
staring
at the same ceiling,
thinking,
shit, another
empty day
to fill.

The pain
of being alone.

Solitude/Loneliness:
two sides, one coin.

To be alive
means to flip it,
accept and embrace
what comes up,
glory or pain,
and move on.
- mce