Not Here

Meeting Leader:  What you hear here, whom you see here, when you leave here, let it stay here.
Group Response:  Hear! Hear!

We bare our souls, say to strangers
what we would hesitate to confess
to priest or counselor.
We show our face, tell our fears,
confess our defects to competitors,
to our children's teachers, to police —
and fear no repercussions, no blame.
Close friends meet in public, greet,
talk of normal things,
find difficult the query,
"How do you know each other?"
Two connect in the rooms, bond —
ask last names for wedding invitations.
We nod across a crowded room,
go about the activity with folks
we barely know, avoid gravitating
to our friend to maintain the curtain,
to protect the secrets of our insanity
and the hope of what we've found.