A Decade Later

Ophelia - Sir John Everett Millais

The Loneliness of the Other

"But you told me,
you're not lonely."

"Yes," I spoke,
and these few words,
to my blood sister.

"I'm not lonely,
but I'm alone,
It's not the loneliness
of the self,
I feel.
It's the loneliness
of the other."

"What does that mean?"
she asked.

"It means,
that with myself
I am complete,
with my own
I'm satisfied.
But the other,
my love, makes
me lonely."

"So, why do you need
the other?"

"Because,
though my own self
is enough
for me,
it is not enough
for my world."

And with
these words,
once again,
I made
the world
outside,
shrink,
and captured it,
into a small
crystal ball,
to gaze
into my own
known future.