No Matter

To know where you are, get lost.
The cliché is not so cute,

If you place the emphasis
On you. You vs. the rest

Of the cues that readily
Suggest, when too familiar,

That they are you, when they’re not.
When you’re lost, you’ve brought you out,

Clear of that familiar crowd
Of your own geography,

And alone in the dark woods,
Lost in another language,

Confused on an empty steppe,
Shivering in a cold town,

You’re just the you you have left.
You in you. That’s where you are.

Why do so few follow this
Paradoxical advice?

It seems charming, doesn’t it?
Sapere aude, all that?

You know. Where you really are
Rarely proves anywhere nice.