I once held glass after glass
of good cheer
now I am an urn of sorrow
filled with failed expectations

corked and sealed
with un-confessed sins
a dead soldier of secrets
a castaway

drifting
in and out of harbors
hoping to be found

I have traveled currents, and tides
floated beacon-less
across rough seas of time
searching for something
someone
somewhere
to discover
what’s inside of me

LORRAINE LOFRESE CONLIN, Nassau County Poet Laureate Emeritus (2015-2017), V.P. of the NCPLS, Events Coordinator for PPA and Dir. of Program Development for the LIWG. She is a two-time winner of the A. Ginsberg poetry contest and has been published nationally and internationally.