Over at the Poetic Asides blog, Robert Lee Brewer is running a poem a day challenge for the month of April, national poetry month. The theme for the first day was "loneliness."  Here's my poem for this challenge:

At Sea

Stranded in a boat with no destination

Alone in my thoughts and in my hesitation

Life floats around me, people with gay smiles

I’m not quite sure where I’m going, won’t know for many miles


Lights are off in the eyes of the other

Fear sets in, but not the kind that makes you shudder

Waves bob up and down around my boat

Those with new oars enjoy their simple gloat


A hand reaches out, touches my fingers

The memory of a life left behind on my mind lingers

While jaws move and words come out

I express my concerns about Descartes’ systematic doubt


The boat will not move, it here is stuck

I express exasperation at my dumb luck

The empty air surrounds me, a journal half-filled lays in rest

The boat tips over, no one to save me, no life vest


I don’t have a fishing line, there’s no plan

The water ebbs and flows, there’s no reason

Everyone watches and stares from the shore

Laughing at the woman alone in the boat during this season