Alone Poem

Even with all the lights on,
I'm alone.
Alone with myself
Not the kind of alone
when all you've got to do is get up
and go, go out in the hall and holler
for the love who's always there, so
It's really safe, after all, to lie
on your back in the dark and wiggle
your toes under the blankets
No
This kind is the kind that starts you
wondering maybe this is the way
you've always been, a no-kidding
kind of alone
There's no
Such thing as "present" after all
where you're the only one here.
You're so
alone you don't know who you are
There's no
one to holler to now
Are you reading
this poem because you're alone?
I'm writing
it because I am
Can anybody write
a poem in the dark?

~Bill Howell