is something I am,
not something
I do. I’m alone inside myself
even when I’m with other

people. Alone with my thoughts
and fantasies, alone with my fears
and discrepancies. No one seems
to understand the places that

I travel in my mind, the unreachable
corners that are hard to find. So, I smile
at them and nod and pretend to go along -
on the outside anyway. But I notice most

people don’t want to reach deeper. And I would
just about do anything to bring someone
into my space. But I do fear they wouldn’t travel
well, judging from my past overtures –
not too many got further