Lonely Streets

[kelby_lake]

I was....
Wandering through dark streets on lonely nights
As if they were my nights and streets alone.
But others wandered down those streets
At those late hours.
Some could not sleep
Some did not want to.

I was, I think, ten
And I should not have gone into those places
Where men drank and smoked and the women
Shouted and cheered.
And everybody saying things I didn't understand.
What they were going to do to other people
What other people had done to them.

One time I was the victim of an inaccurate fist
I was tall for ten; they could not see my face
Only my cropped blonde hair I'd had cut
In a bid to look older.

I was but a child then
Now I know better
Than to go wandering in the dark
On my own, or in loneliness.

[PrinceMyshkin]

It's a good strong vignette, and the comma after "on my own" puts such poignant empasis on "or in loneliness" - as if it were an after-thought which, one realizes, is not an after-thought at all, but one that you've held back as long as you could.

[a_little_wisp]

Ah, sweet Eponine. Musical, Les Miserables. Just reminded me of it.

What a vivid, lonely story, that says so much more than is written here - a true gift, that.

The dark is a dangerous place to be when you're lonely. *Lights a lantern for her*