The Essay

Those bastards have demanded
3,000 words on a person centred approach
to counselling.
I've bashed out four times more than that
in short stories
whilst trying to write the damn thing.
Truth be told
I just don't see the point
in having my topic decided for me.
I thrive in freedom
and as a result
a stranger has experienced
what it is to let go.
Someone not so strange
has watched the world happen.
I was almost ready for someone
that none of us know
watch an old man stare out of the window
of a crowded bus
whilst memories of his late wife
meant that he had to take
an earlier stop.
The last thing I want to do
is knuckle down and show off
how well I could sit down next to you
at your worst
and talk you through it
until our 50 minutes passed
and you thanked me for something that I'd done
even though neither of us were all that sure.
Life is used in writing,
but writing should never try and be life.
I'm sure some of you could bore with me names
and extracts
just as I could bother you with Fante and Larry Brown,
but that is our own private matter.
This is my private matter
and I'm struggling to see
how 3,000 words will help me
sit next to a man in need.
I'll sit fine there.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say
other than we are who we are
for various different reasons,
but that's who we are
not what we can jot down
on another's demand.