This is the life where

This is the life where I'm sitting
at two in the morning with a laptop
in a house full of colour and people
in a town full of colour and people
but in my other life I'm living near the sea
hundreds of yards between the houses
wild walks with wet wind whipping
and not a soul to be seen for those who see the souls of those they see on the road
and my children cycle past me on their way to things I know nothing about
secret adventures with other children or dens or the old gods of the seaweed and the brown rockpools
and in my other life I'm working on a farm
with communal harvest and children in wet jumpers heaving potatoes out of the dirt
and my hands on the garden fork are covered in paint from my studio but that's ok
everyone gets covered in paint in a life like this

But those lives are with other people
And the people in my life are in this life
Which is not like anything I planned in my teens
Except that one time I shaved my head
And I sometimes do have wine with dinner like a sophisticated grownup
Even if I drink it out of a juice glass.