How’s your girlfriend going? she asks tonelessly..
Pam? Yeh, she’s okay, I say.
You seem to need somebody, she says. A wife, partner, a female friend.
And you don’t?
No. I must be stronger, she conjectures in her haughty voice. I can live with myself. I don’t need anyone.
Loneliness is a morose companion, I add.
She says nothing.
pic by Joey Monsoon courtesy of Pinterest
John Malone 
Well penned John. Shades of ‘I am a rock’ by Simon and Garfunkel.
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much appreciated, Hobbo; actual transcript of a conversation 🙂
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👍
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“i can live with myself”. That’s an interesting comment, isn’t it? The alternative is dire. It’s a very interesting piece of dialogue. So much to conjecture. So much said and unsaid. I feel like it’s the kind of conversation you read in books and think “that would never really happen”. But it really does!!
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it was the haughtiness that got to me; the inference that I am ‘weak’ because I need s companion —
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There’s nothing weak about companionship. And nothing strong about loneliness. I think your response to her was perfect.
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thank you, Worms: she’s probably still mulling it over 🙂
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so much said here, in so few words
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it is one of the most concise pieces I have ever written: it took me two days to reproduce the conversation accurately with its pauses and silences —
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it turned out perfectly
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thank you so much, Beth 🙂
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Love how you just leave it hanging there. “She says nothing”
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I think my comment ‘floored’ her just as her comment ‘floored’ me; it was one of those moments 🙂 thanks Ulle —
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It’s what’s unsaid here that speaks loudest, John. One of your finest in my humble opinion.
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thank you so much, Matthew; I took so much care reproducing not only the words but also the hesitations, the silences —
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Love this one 👍👍🖤🖤
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thanks; good to hear from you 🙂
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You’re most welcome 😁
I’m sorry I have been quiet – but I’ve most definitely still been reading!!
This was excellent. It resonated with me deeply 🖤🖤
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thank you so much; it’s a piece that’s been brewing over some days; it came out all right , with the right concentration, focus 🙂
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It came out great! 👍👍🖤
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I like the line “I can live with myself” as if she’s trying to convince herself that this is true. Perhaps it’s because we cannot live without ourselves, and yet it is one of the most difficult tasks to master. Bitter when achieved.
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thanks, K ; life is tricky but loneliness is trickier; I was amazed that I came up with that saying: it must have been forming in my mind for some time 🙂 it is so easy to overwrite; it took all of my skills to underwrite 🙂
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This is so uncanny, John. I have an old friend named Pam. This sounds like her and looks like her!
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I hope she never gave you a hard time like L did to me 🙂
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I do treasure my own company.
With seven kids, and eleven
grand kids, it’s a rare commodity.
Precious as it can possibly be.
Poor, poor, pitiful me 😎
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🙂 in the words of Linda Ronstadt. Yes, David, with that tribe constantly around you, I can imagine solitude would be bliss 🙂 funny thing, the number of offspring constantly changes 🙂
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I never know whether to count
the little buns in the oven 🤔
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it is so easy to lose count, to occasionally wrap one’s head around more pressing matters, like poetry 🙂
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The moroseness oozed on to her toes. Hope it didn’t get to you. This was quick and clever. 🙂
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thanks Terveen; only occasionally but I brush it off 🙂
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Such a small piece with possibilities for endless discussions..loved it…, ❤️❤️
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thank you very much 🙂 I love writing miniatures 🙂
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Nice… Loneliness and companionship are both needed
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that is so true: loneliness or its happier cousin aloneness play their part —
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