Nov PAD Challenge Day 7: Pro-Solitude

For Day 7 of the November PAD Poetry Chapbook Challenge is to write a pro-poem...pro-anything. Here's the pro-poem of a mom of four who gets basically NO time alone.

Pro-Solitude
a gleam, a glint,
a small puddle--
a bare hour in my day
is all I ask.
hungering for this time,
my own time, purchased
only for me, to
imprint thought to page,
to settle into myself,
to delicately fluff a pillow
or two and grow more comfortable
in my own company.

but needs tug me away--
this child requires math help,
this child tells his sad story,
this child asks her keen questions,
this one silently pleads my arms
to wrap him 'round.
so I write into early morning,
after the house is tucked in
and kissed goodnight--
I write late, after rooms
are silence and shadow.
the lone candle gleams,
glints, a small puddle of
wax glueing around the
blackened, curled wick.

Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett

Wishing you all a poetic week,