Shared Solitude


Do you ever like to be alone

unplug the phone

make them think that you're not home

on your own

inside the zone?

The key point

is something you must steal 

from obligation

deeper than they dig

for the to-be-buried sleeper

with his moon-shaped face

directed at the sun

far deeper than the bulldozer

in its raking run.

Sometimes you do achieve it,

get to the darkest sand,

unearth a convoluted mollusc

or long-forgotten wedding band.

What makes it worth it then

is that excavated by a pen

you can give it back again.

And as the other poet said,

it's your best self

that's shared instead.