Isolation

By: Raymond Hoffman

Everything tight like islands

Abhorrent is the shore where the others swim

Tangle up to the warmer ones

The most abrasive tag along

If happiness is a toe in water, mania is a plunge

Born a swimmer, but never knew what to go after

Natural nomad launched out of orbit

Life is searching for herds across hot cement

Hopping along frantic and scared

Terrified of those sharks

They nestle to you when most vulnerable

Admire and come to you

Blowing up your phone, feeling alone

Loneliness must be an adhesive for all kinds of souls

Rich to poor

Language barriers divide

I’m ostracized by mental health, others just feel left out of the fun

I can’t ride the tide

Born too pigeon toed to walk right

So I find shelter in those that have higher plateaus

A June bug to light is me to strangers Bound to another’s will and intent

They put you on your knees

Some are kind and some are pushy Getting shoved becomes customary

Some talk, others make demands Like bricks amongst others

Yet my wall doesn’t feel secure

I’m mere minutes from turning to shards

Because my innate nature was never secured

My own sense of self robbed the moment I got told my gait is all wrong

Nothing ordinary, nothing sound

Just empty shallow waves making vibrations across my surface

I’m hesitant, because I was born scared.

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Raymond Hoffman has a background in political science and Southeast Asian Studies.

He has taught in China for many years and currently is a fifth grade teacher in the Midwest.

Poetry writing has been used by him as a coping mechanism for bipolar disorder for over a decade now. Sylvia Plath has always been a great source of inspiration, as has been Albert Camus. 

He has previously been published in the Humans of the World literary blog and Beyond Words Literacy

Magazine