A Life of Wonder

I don’t know where the sunsets
Maps perplex me
I’d rather hang them than use them

I am constantly disorientated
Seeking directions from hotdog vendors
And women whose headphones protect them
From questions of any kind

When I am urgently lost I remember
Even five-year-olds can find themselves
On children’s maps

Does asking taxi drivers
For landmarks
Make me less of a man?

My request reveals too much:
That I can’t kill a bear
Assemble furniture
Or recite stats from last night’s game

I live in the state of lost
A pleasurable trance
between “you can’t miss it,” and “take a right on Elm.”

The truth? I’d rather keep
Driving, dreaming, running, thinking
Then stop

Twice I didn’t
at 3 I ran in terror 
At 21 I ran in bliss
Naked on the streets of Paris Amsterdam Prague

I awoke at home
Like a parrot that flew away
Finding himself years later back
In a cage left open for him

-ZB 1/1/22