Introvert

Perhaps the introvert is not
one who likes to be alone
but is more accurately described:
one who likes to be alone
when others are looking for them.

As a young man on Sunday mornings
I would hide in the church utility room
touching the old tools, cherishing silence,
fleeing the kindly old ladies
who wanted to hug me and ask questions
I kindly didn't want to answer.

Even now at Christmastime
in a bustling house with my children,
my kind parents, my loving wife,
all my delightful siblings and so on,
I tuck myself away somewhere and
just listen to the elsewhere noise,
soak in the delicious, immediate quiet
just for moments, just because.







july 2022