Loneliness

STATISTIC
I am the herald before the king, in bright silk, overshadowed, and therefore forgotten.
I am the unidentified face in the album, a passport name, a reply in a census, one more figure in the population statistics,
dead while I am alive, only alive when dead, until the statistics are changed.
Who else am I?
I am the spirit that searches for nothing, the ragged beggar sleeping under a marquee,
the suicidal person dancing in an empty space, the tear rolling down the face, the sobbing in the middle of the night,
the question without an answer, despair minus the wishful thinking called hope, a starless night,
a blind person walking on the sidewalk, a body under a cold tombstone.
So, who am I?

I am the one who has never been.

(By Tom Holt)