Numb Poem by Alice Kriel

When the only sounds are the calling of the amorous cats
and the clicking of time’s tiny heels,
my heartbeat makes me stagger
and my breath makes me weave where I lie.
Tonight the sheer soleness of my vulnerability
makes my wrists ache
and causes my soul to bleed.
I am so sad and overwhelmed
by the conspicuity of my infinite strangeness,
that the inevitability of my loneliness
pushes down on me like a black cloud of thunder
Maybe all I need is love,
but maybe I am too ‘unique’ to ever have anything
but oblique solidarity.

Lungs push against ribs,
eyes redden between lids,
blood pulses between skin and bone,
and yet I feel not alive.