when I come back from walks

when I come back from walks
or if people see me by the river
or if a couple I know walk past me
they hand in hand,
me with eyes closed and still
listening to some invisible bird
chirping in branches above,
sometimes some say:
see that sad man;
the lonely man in his walk…

ah friends, I say (only if asked),
aloneness is not sadness
aloneness is not lonely
for the quiet
is deeper
than the chatter
and the noise
and the bonds and memories