Days of 79

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Do you arrive some place
and find a whole bunch of letters waiting for you

are you that popular
and your friends so keen
that you should see them
posing on a promenade
or donning a rich fur coat

and what of the ones
who sent nothing

where’s the word from
your current flame
or the one who’s looking
after your car

yes, Betsie has a new hearing aid
and Dale had a bad reaction to peanuts
on an airplane

but no one asks,
are the Andes as undeniably beautiful
as your postcards suggest

here you are in Araquipa
collecting your mail
staying in a Bed and Breakfast
run by a cranky old Englishwoman

and there’s these bits of other lives
spread out on the table before you

none of which connect
to the view from the window
or even the homelife you remember

you’ve been traveling
high in mountains
deep in forests
and now you stop
a little tired
hoping to catch up

but there’s no catching up really

just Moira’s senior prom
Angie’s fruit cake
Richard’s fall off his bicycle

you can only live where you are,
be with the people
within arm’s length

for now it’s that old English lady
the last person in the world
you’d want for company

do you arrive some place
and find that there’s letters addressed
to the people who wrote them

you only read them to be kind

to keep your distance