I hear another’s voice,

a whistle, a shout, a yell.

Though frightened, I’ll never tell:

How deep the sound had hit me.

Alone, I am my own choice,

encased, uniform, a shell,

though loneliness be a homely hell:

Unseen, seeing only.

What a hefty price to be,

sovereign, independent, free.

---

Unheeded, the warning was lost on me.

Unneeded, I lost my needs, what feeds

the very desire to be;

Am now a single flower

–where once were seeds,

now golden beads.

---

Untethered, unbound by simpleminded creeds,

the god’s sunny shower wanders,

limitless, the loam and sod,

and had all but forgot–

what is it to touch,

and why this hollow bed,

where once there was a friend?