Instead
I have photos instead
Of memories.
I keep looking through my albums-
Thousands of images
And not a single story.
I wonder who I am.
I wonder why.
All those years I spent
Yearning to get out
Into the world,
Instead of dying,
I saw it differently.
I thought if I traveled
A million miles,
I would arrive somewhere.
But I’m nowhere.
I’m no one
And nothing in particular;
I’m cold and weightless,
In a void without gravity.
I’m a thief of oxygen,
A waste of atoms.
I could have been wild
In the jungle, or the sea.
I could have been a star in Orion
Or a stone at Giza.
I walk the streets
Just to see living.
That’s the only way I can see it-
From the side, watching
Other people breathe the air
I’m only tasting.
I should lie on my back
In the street,
Cross my eyes
At the buildings that sparkle
In my periphery,
Hanging from the sidewalks
Like beaded curtains.
I should reach up,
Pluck a single blue thread
And watch the sky unravel;
Watch the worldFall away.
