To a Frequent Business Traveller

Home so seldom, please just stay away

on your important islands.  Let the deep

moan round you with its voices.  Here, I play

my music, eat my kind of food, and sleep

my own sleep.  The entire quiet bed,

bit by small bit, I've occupied, until

I own it.  Imperceptibly I've spread,

possessing rooms, and house, and barns, to fill

not only space, but time, and there's no room

to spare for you (where did I put you when

you did come home?).  No room for other men

either, so, please, although you don't come home,

be there, officially.  But don't be here,

in bed and house and barnyard—Best if you'd

leave me entirely abandoned, where

I've been so well seduced by solitude.

Deborah Warren

(c) 1999; originally printed in Medicinal Purposes.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

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