Solitary Notebooks 

I've not known you

or heard you

nor been close enough

to hear you sing

some somber lullaby

to the strangers you

speak of softly and

suddenly, strangers that

deceitfully stained

your stockings

and white lace dresses

leaving through the

back door of neon lit

buildings with their

cracked concrete walls.

Yet I see

some sense

in the songs

and symbolism

of survival and

sense making

that sketch their way

through your

solitary notebooks

reaching into the

abandoned universes

of our imagination.

M Martinez 2024