Hollowness. Poem by Terry Collett

Hollowness
of the mornings
and evenings
of sleep and dreams

and waking up
to another morning
and the radio
blaring out

hollow music
by hollow people
and they talk
in between songs

hollowness
in their voices
and the place
seemingly hollow

and hollow people
walk the supermarkets
filling trolleys
with hollowness

and Muzak pushed out
as they shop
and the comfortableness
and the pretend

contentment
but really just hollowness
there in their eyes
and the light

of their eyes
and that smiling
they have
which is as hollow

as their lives
and the morality
and rules of hollowness
rule and the pretence

it is not hollow
although deep down
they know it is
hollowness of nights

and dreams on dreams
of forgetfulness
and the waking up
of grief and knowing

it will always be there
like a ghost of what once was
and is not
and they lay down

to sleep and one day
it will be the final sleep
and the last kiss
of hollowness to bless.