The Lonely Man - Poem

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An ironic poem reveals a contradiction in human behavior. In “The Lonely Man,” Greg Luti shows a man who openly admits his loneliness to two women offering help, yet twice rejects them with the same smirk: “I’m lonely… but I’m not that lonely.” This self-aware refusal to change is the heart of the poem’s irony.

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A man walked down a street one night when a woman whom he had never met approached him.

All the men in town knew of this woman, but would never dare say such a thing in the workplace.

Technically, no one around town knew this woman.

“Hey, Daddy.” She called out.

“You lonely?”

He spoke a phrase as though it explained itself.

“I’m lonely,” He smirked.

“But I'm not that lonely.”

What does he mean, he is not that lonely?

Can you truly be such a way?

How can he be so self-aware of his loneliness, yet reject the one thing that can make no man lonely?

If you see a problem, do you not fix it?

Yet, this man knows his loneliness is a problem, yet he accepts it.

I had so many questions for the man.

Some of which included if his head was hollow, or if he was altogether there.

The man headed back to his apartment.

Before he could get into the front door, a woman similar to the one he had seen before approached him.

“Hey, Daddy.” She called out.

“You lonely?”

Surely this was the man’s shot at redemption.

A chance to make up for a lost opportunity.

To right a wrong and learn from his mistakes.

There is no way this man says the same thing twice, right?

Right?

Alas, he repeated himself as though that was all that he needed to say.

“I’m lonely.” He smirked.

“But I’m not that lonely.”

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