secret lives

i'm always amazed
at how many people have secret lives.

secret boyfriends,
secret wives.

two families, three jobs.
an extra

dog and cat at a different address.
the exhaustion

of all those lies, all that juggling.

I can barely keep one life
straight.

how do they do it? where do they find
the energy

and time to pretend to be other people?
to have fake

lives?

the p.o. box,
the hidden cell phone.

the secret rendezvous. who has the time
for all that

monkey business?

and where does it end?
all these strangers standing over

the grave,
each saying to the other,

who are you? have we met?