Dorthea Tanning

 


Are You?

If an expatriate is, as I believe, someone 
who never forgets for an instant 
being one, 
then, no. 

But, if knowing that you always 
tote your country around 
with you, your roots, 
a lump 

like a soul that will never leave you 
stranded in alien subsets of 
yourself, or your wild 
entire; 

that being elsewhere packs a vertigo, 
a tightrope side you cannot 
pass up, another way 
to show 

how not to break your pretty neck 
falling on skylights: 
reward-laden 
mirages; 

then, yes. All homes are home; mirages 
everywhere. Aside from 
gravity, there are no 
limits, 

never were, nor will there ever be, 
no here and there to foil 
your lotus-dreaming 
legend. 

Stay on the planet, if you can. It isn't 
all that chilly and what's more, 
grows warmer by the 
minute.

John Ashbery

  The New Spirit (excerpt) I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave a...