The business meeting dealt with the business

The express train dealt with the journey home

Then comes the time that is, for some, hardest

How to pass time usefully on your own

The teenage wasteland where nothing was grown

The bitter, fruitless taste, the frittered age

Of youth descending in stages, outgrown

By useful truth unknown, useless knowledge

Acquired at home. But the time to engage

Approached; reproached by twin sex and success

Dragged out of bed, drugged, into new beds thrown

Alone no more, but still I turned the page

Sought company from books that cost me less

Than people; brought me peace in crowded home