Alone the pain feels

By JC Nigado

Alone the pain feels

When one’s sick – abed

Or elsewhere, healing

All by oneself, as Tolstoy

Comforts in his peace of war.

Single at birth and in death –

One’s first breath and last;

And sole the discomfort grows.

A carer or a crowd,  

Around the sickroom,

Doesn’t change the reality

Of pain and solitude.

4:00 a.m., Sunday, 4 December 2016   

Tagurabong City, Philippines