EXISTENTIALIST

Everybody sits down

at the chair to do the work

in his own way.

Everybody takes a shower

in water of a varying degrees,

brushes his teeth in a singular rhythm.

Everybody makes his coffee

a little bit different--maybe
no sugar or extra cream.

Everybody hauls the coal

to the mouth of the mine

using particular tools, some

prefer the wheelbarrow,

some the sack. Everybody

stops for a break at a different

time, and welcomes in winter

by looking at the skinny,

naked apple trees

or the narrow frosted fields

as he breathes his visible clouds.

Everybody dreams of not going back.

Except the ones who never

take the break in the first place.
They're the saddest of all.

Everybody dies individually,

unable to reach across 

the chasm and share even
the most infinitesimal part
of the entire isolated feat.