Loneliness Poem by Aparna Chatterjee

Have you seen
How loneliness
Gnaws at you
Like termites
In a wooden
Body…

You are
Not an
Old piece
Of furniture
That can be
Replaced -
With a body
New.

So,
Helplessly
Hopelessly
You let the
Termites…
Chew into you.

On second thoughts
Even if you had -
A body refreshed
And new, wouldn't
Those termites…
Still find you?

After all,
As long as
You live,
Loneliness
Lives with you.

It's only those
In-between
Fillers of
Joyous
Moments
That come
Visiting you,
But they soon
Bid you adieu.

Loneliness
Stays.
It's your
Lifelong
Enemy.

It whips you
Haunts you…
Threatens you
Bullies you.

You try
Scaring it away.
It never
Leaves you.

It thrives
Within you
Like a termites'
Colony and keeps
Eating into you…