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.

D. H. Lawrence

 from Pansies THE WHITE HORSE The youth walks up to the white horse, to put its halter on and the horse looks at him in silence. They are s...