FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON

For the first thirty minutes of my walk

through the dark December afternoon

I don't see a single person; only

when I step into the apothecary

do I enter the world of human beings

again. Such desolation; I

remember how it was,

when I was young -

and now, empty streets

and black windows, and I

still here, in this

quiet loneliness of a county.

13.12.2017