"At the Border"
by Carl Dennis
by Carl Dennis
At the border between the past and the future
No sign on a post warns that your passport
Won't let you return to your native land
As a citizen, just as a tourist
Who won't be allowed to fraternize with the locals.
No guard steps out of a booth to explain
You can't bring gifts back, however modest,
Can't even pass a note to a few friends
That suggests what worries of theirs are misguided,
What expectations too ambitious.
Are you sure you're ready to leave,
To cross the bridge that begins
Under a clear sky and ends in a fog?
But look, you've started across already
And it's one-lane wide, with no room for U-turns.
No time even to pause as drivers behind you
Lean on their horns, those who've convinced themselves
Their home awaits them on the other side.
6 comments:
Lots of "meat" in this poem - as in "food for thought."
Who is Carl Dennis?
Oh man me too.
A contemporary poet, I guess; here's the Wikipedia entry on him: Carl Dennis.
I read this poem in the Post a few weeks ago and liked it. He has a new book coming out; I don't remember the title.
And he's a professor and he won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2002.
I like this guy - I will have to pay more attention to him!
it's kinda sad. Makes me think back to the Marin 12 days and all the late nights laughing while sitting sitting on your bed. Good times.
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