THE OLD DOGS WHO FOUGHT SO WELL

If you think they didn’t go crazy
in tiny rooms
just like you’re doing now

without women
without food
without hope
then you’re not ready

And I laughed out loud. Because it’s always the way - when you’re alone and feeling like could jump off the edge of the world,
that’s when they find you and tell you they all went through the same thing.
And it makes you feel special because you feel like of all the people in all the world, these yearsdead writers wrote whatever it was that made the blood run in your veins again, just for you.
And you say their names out loud when you walk the city in the middle of the night, and you feel close to something timeless;
you feel like someone just lay you down on your back and showed you the sky.

KAE TEMPEST