"OUTSIDE"

Painting - Solitude by Daler Usmonov

"I'm afraid" he whispered under his breath,  chin just barely removed from his neck in a pathetic attempt at eye contact with his own shadow, which leered over him like the imposing finger of a mother in mid form of a correction. He could still only see the light as a narrow beam reaching out to him in the darkness from under a door.  It was cold,  but he'd been there just long enough to become acclimated to it.  But every so often the bitterness,  and bite of the environment would remind him that he was never truly warm.  He adjusted his coat of familiarity around him to protect himself against the possibility of any new interruption of this latest stubborn attempt at stagnation. Outside the grayish stained windows of the room inside his head he could hear the faint whispers of the people he longed to connect with, who in turn longed to connect with him. Drowned out by the effusive noise in the collective space of his insecurity. Unsure and bedeviled, he drew his feet away from the encroaching arrow of light. Using what little strength he had preserved against his crippling ailments, he balled up further into his isolated corner, and pretended he didn't hear the knock of opportunity at the door of fate in front front of him. The volume of which made him even more petrified, as it represented the sheer number of possibilities outside the darkness of his self imposed prison. Once more uttering the melancholy refrain... "I am afraid"