Finding Now

Finding Now

Well, yes ­– exactly – that is the problem.

All travelers experience it

at each step on the Way. Is it

here, there, up, down,

backwards, forwards, all around,

or somewhere else? How are we to know,

if it doesn’t tell us so?

We all have our maps, but they are the

artifacts rubbing our noses in it.

My worn map I drew myself. I traced

a line from Birchman Street in Fort Worth

through dark caves as a Boy Scout, to Saigon

(and flowing dresses) to Ubon and

Thailand’s temples to Third Street in Denton –

a college town – to Dallas (there’s the dead president)

to Arlington to Thailand again and Laddawan – to Denton

(the college town again) to Waco – a crazy town –

to Alpine and the airy Big Bend where I met and lost

so many friends, to here and now in Chiang Mai.

Ok, just breathe deep and let go.

That’s as close as I can get to it.