You want my time
my attention
my efforts
Take a number
You are just another
asking for a resource that is
scarcifying with each minute

(I have much less than the 4,000 weeks
I had upon delivery)

You want my time
my attention
my eyes and ears
and you pay others
for what belongs to me
and let spacemen bid
for entrance to my thoughts
my relationships, even with strangers.

Take a number
I have decided that
you will need to wait a while
until I am good and ready
to pay you heed
Excuse me, I have work to do.

(With apologies to Mary Oliver (I walked to the Shore)