We Loners

we loners
drift far from the harbor
of family and friends
solitary buoys bobbing
on a swollen sea of time
too much time

riding relentless waves
of contemplation
mad surfers with
but one life
yet unafraid of what
curiosity
did to the cat

we pursue threads
of memory and imagination
through crooked passages
howling and dark
snipping the pieces
that stick to our grasping fingers
stuffing our pockets full

and with these
invisible fibers
weave a cocoon
to huddle in

over the years
adding layers
patching holes

and inside
echoes of echoes
swallow the original voice
as their volume swells

a whirlpool of static
mistaken for self
as burly white coated men
drag shackled sanity
off in a padded van

alone
one’s madness
becomes the truth
of a god
whose whims
are chiseled
in stone

we kneel before
our mirrors
then destroy them