Alone Poem by Don Pearson

Once we lay together,
Making love or sleeping
Wrapped around one another,
Close-huddled like kittens,
Blind to the raging of
the storms outside.

Drink kicked down our door,
Let in the wind and rain
To batter us, tear down
Our love, our home,
Stone by stone,
Wall by wall.

Only the hearth remains.
I have built a fire
With all that I have left,
Lit with all that I have lost,
Blown for the many blows,
Stoked with years of hurt.

Tonight, alone,
I am warming myself
With the wreckage
Of my life with you
Spread before me
Flickering, aglow.

How fierce the blaze,
The white-hot iron,
When you return.

12th. November 2010