Alone

Because there was no

warrant in continued hurt,

no pain for pain’s sake

tolerable, no end in sight,

no purpose but to self-

deteriorate, to suffocate,

strangled, an infectious

sense of hopelessness,

I became alone. My risks,

my own; my responsibilities,

my own; my failures, my own;

my triumphs, my own; my path,

my own. Fearlessly alone.