Sitting on a bench

Sometimes songs can send shivers throughout your whole body, because the melody and words speak to you, speak to your lonely heart.

I sat cross-legged on a bench overlooking the calm, gray sea. It was a beautiful afternoon, and I stared far, far into the distance, wondering where the sea ended and where the sky began. It was cold, so I had my hands in my jacket pocket, earplugs in my ears. I sat, forgetting all about time, and just stared at the sea, as it silently waved and crashed in the distance.

At times I'd close my eyes, and feel the weak sun try to touch me. Down at the beach, people strolled by... some couples walked hand in hand, while others talked gently with their friends and family.

Now and then people would walk past the bench I sat on, and they'd at me. The expressions on their faces seemed to be one of pity... as if they could see the word 'loneliness' written all over me. Even the doggies that sniffed and skipped and peed around me seemed so very happy.

I tried to ignore them, and to pretend to look into the distance, look at the waving sea and the never-ending coastline so that I wouldn't have to face them... But uncontrollably my eyes would wander and dwell on the shadows of the people who had just passed me by. Perhaps, I envied how they had someone to talk to, someone to be with. The dirt path before me was deserted and seemed to lead to nowhere. And the songs playing in my ears seemed to mock my feelings.


I tried to shut out the nagging, irritating thoughts and words of those I live with... I tried to not think about the mess I wake up to face every single morning. But it's hard. I tried not to think about the things I still have to do for school... about the future that lies ahead of me after I graduate in a few months.

The seagulls flew and soared in the skies, and were free. It was a real shame that surrounded by all this beauty of nature and this day, my mind was muddled and miserable.

When I decided to head home... head back to that place and those people I'd rather not have to see, the skies had clouded, and the sun was starting to disappear.