Hug my worries away

Have you ever woken up
within your four walls,
a world thick with uncertainty
reaching for a hand to hold,
a reassuring voice,
only to find an empty hum?

A silence that seeps into your soul,
gnaws at your psyche
until it’s just you
and your prying thoughts.
Alone.

There are days when it feels
like the world turned its back on you,
when the lows become persistent,
the only mental state you know.

I’m guilty of holding back tears
pushing through so fiercely
I can do nothing but catch them
on their way down.

It’s in that moment I realize
how much I’ve underestimated hugs.
But have I?
A hug lover, I don’t think I ever have,
except when they’re socially forced.

Yet when I look around
there’s not a single soul
I want a hug from.
A real one.
Warm. Tight. Overbearing;
a bear hug,
the kind that keeps you emotionally afloat.

There isn’t a single soul at all.

Words can lift morale, yes,
but my body demands physical touch.
It seems the older I get,
the more I isolate,
and the more I isolate,
the more I understand
why some loners,
why lonely people
go insane.

A reassuring hug sometimes
is the medicine
for the trapped souls.
It can make worlds collide,
lift the spirit, soothe an aching soul,
easing unshed tears
that wait to fall
inside their four walls.