O, sweet alone time.

My love for you is greater than all the drops of water in the sea.

You stretch before me, seductive, ensconced in shadows

Calling me, ever-forward, to follow you,

My patient siren.

You offer grandmotherly treats:

Chocolate chip cookies tinged with molasses and studded with bittersweet chocolate.

Uninterrupted bedtime reading sessions.

Showers that run so long my knees buckle in overheated contentment.

You whisk me into quiet, so that I forget the screeching brakes and pungently stewing garbage of the city.

You sound mostly of far-away voices, muffled through windows and walls.

You smell largely of lavender and yellow-paged library books.

You feel like the dish suds fluffing around my busy fingers, alternated with cool air and linen.

You resonate patiently clanking china.

My home within a home. That’s what you are.

Picking off the lint and detritis of my days, dousing me in your delectable solitude, always reminding me I’m welcome to stay –

Longer,

Ever longer.

An impossible lover: Allowing me to leave when I must, but open-doored, welcoming, understanding, when I return.

Never caring what I’ve done or where I’ve been.

Ready to envelop me at a moment’s notice,

Whenever I cast my gaze upon you.