High Hopes

It wasn’t that they were so

high, exactly,

they were more

low-down,

close-to-the-ground,

I could rub them

the way you touch a cat

that rubs against your ankles

even if he isn’t yours.

So yes I feel lonely without them.

Now that I know the truth,

that I only dreamed someone liked me,

the cat has curled up in a bed of leaves

against the house and I still have to do

everything I had to do before

without a secret hum

inside.

I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it extremely comforting that we’re so close… I am bound, you are bound, to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.