Here and There

Took nine months to learn
the soap in my dish scrubber
runs out too fast
filled more than halfway
Strange way to spend nine months
Not the only thing I learned
but it seems significant
and I wonder at that

Learned to care about myself
I may be overfilled and running out
Learned to clean the toilet
Disengaged from television
Stepped down from wanting things
Saw things inside, darker, brighter things
Emerging of submerged
Funny stuff, great stuff, meaningless stuff

What's it like to live in a foreign land
a city not your own, they ask
Inquiring minds want to know
that's what they say, but not for long
Distracted by planning dinner, remembering last night's fight
No lessons drawn from someone else
not that mean a damn
You might wonder at that

Simpler here, but I'm prevented
from the understanding
of life in domination
All those heavy boots and heavy years
I laugh to write that, examine
the domination of my life lived free
We all hear boots imagined
And I wonder at that

Friends and work here, different
from friends and work back there
Back there is where I came from, home is here
A meaningless distinction to you, it's not to me
The work is eager, strains at the leash, pulling
Quickly focused
A city of coming and going
Turnover deprivation

A lot at stake in friendship
Broke amidst baroque, circling wagons
writing, wasting time, investing time
Pull of the leash, looking up
having coffee and talking it over
Standing in cold, lying in sun,
Waiting for a night tram, enfolded by a city
and I wonder at that

What about your life, the one you chose
or allowed others to choose
Does it warm you, let you lie in grass
shake off the cold, like mine
Are you lonely out there, or is someone loving you
Is there a pull at your leash, will you write
or has distance taken us too far
I wonder about that, too