With No One

Of all the phishing efforts online scammers pull,
the emails that start with, "I am lonely tonight..."
are the ones that irk me the most. I think it's
mostly because everyone knows 99% of us feel that
way. Every single night. When they attempt to lure
some of us into some scam with those four words,
I am lonely tonight, they brazenly prey upon our
very misery, on the solitary nature of our condition,
on our hapless, lonesome ways of being. Of all
areas, this is the one where we might hope to be
left on our own, to stick it out, to suffer through
moment-less night after moment-less night,
to come to terms with a wicked lack of anything
at all. But, no. In they still come, these notes
which painfully remind us who we truly are at heart.
We are all heart. With no place to focus the works
of the heart, we wither. With no one we wither.

(2008)