Sleuth by Hayley Stoddard

To be a poet is to be alone,
to make friends with a pen
and be familiar with the feel of paper.

But to be a poet is not always lonely,
for there is inevitably 
an argument to be had with the trees,
a compliment to give oneself on a rhyme,
a political demonstration by black ants to document.

But perhaps the most truthful of all,

to be a poet is to watch and scribble
the tiny things that make people people,
and to give back to them things they already knew
but never thought were important

like the look in their eye
when they see the moon at midday,
or the way they touch coffins,
wondering what their own will look like.

Photo by Matthew LeJune on Unsplash