Rise to see one soul
has seen and marked my last text
with a “thumbs up”

and thus I have found
the strength to go on for a while —
just a little while.

You’re laughing right now
at this one, aren’t you?
This broken haiku?

Take what they give you,
my parents said, early on.
Take it and go on.

So — I will take it,
I will take it in to my home.
I don’t laugh like you;

instead, I fold it.
Sits in my pocket like lint.
sits there till it’s gone.

When I wake up, I’ll laugh
at it — if I recall it,
that is. I may not.

But waiting for it
to be gone or to come back?
It is beyond me

to have not wondered
who had my back out there.
To think about them

randomly. Wonder —
he or she, tall or short,
still alive, or gone?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T