By David Roth
© 12 November, 2003
In my solitude, I pause
Taking stock of my surroundings
A flurry of motion
A concert of sound
The myriad of activity
Pulsing with the ebb and flow of life
As it flows undaunted
Through the river of life around me
I mark the passage of time
Measured in the finite markers of existence
The change of the seasons
The pulse of traffic
The child who seems somehow both aging
And ageless
As the finite stretches towards infinity
On the endless horizon
Some just out of my grasp
I see the changes in my world
And sense the essence of life
As realization dawns
Casting a beam of vague enlightenment
That the more things change
The more they remain the same
Cast adrift in a sea of activity
I remain hidden in my sacred tower
Sheltered from the storms
Protected from the turbulence
By the solitude of my cocoon
Seeing only the edges of their passing
Through the bleak tunnel of my limited vision
I wear my solitude as a badge of honor
Steeped in boastful pride
Over my ability to remain aloof
Separate from the masses
Above the commonplace and mundane
Arrogant and proud in my aloneness
Blissfully ignorant
Of what might have been
Or of what might yet be
Outside the blanket
Of my solitude
