Look, Brookes…
I don’t want to tell you how to live your life
(actually, I want to do that very much.
Telling others what to do
is really a distinct pleasure of mine),
so I’ll simply describe my process
and hope that you agree with me.
If not,
I’ll just say it again and again
and eventually you may listen.
I try
when I write
not to be purely autobiographical.
I seek to be a little more universal.

Look, Brookes…
I can’t deny
that it lets me obfuscate certain details
so I’m getting to maintain my privacy
to some slight degree
but that’s a two-way street.
I’m not letting my business all out
but I’m also protecting any subject
I were about.

Look, Brookes…
when you write about me
and an us that was at least slightly imaginary
you run the risk of letting your laundry air publicly
and making a private conversation
less so.
Bring a slave to literalism
leaves you a slave.

Look, Brookes…
by tying your writing to specific details
of specific events
you risk alienating your readers
taking them out of what you describe
because it fails to apply to them.

Look, Brookes,
this is my way,
not the only way,
but I see a lot of good
in having some clinical distance
in my writing.
It means, sometimes,
that I’m writing about things
that I’m not absolutely writing about.
I think it’s a benefit
to not see direct translations of reality in art
but it you really disagree,
I guess you don’t always have to look, Brookes.