Dislocated

A change in daily view
is what I’m trying to deserve
the next time fortune wanders
over here and listens close
for something to consider.
You can see it with a telescope
if you aim it at the right place
in the sky.

The heat is dry out here
in this desert where the mirages
are all of water or a person
you remember but would
rather soon erase
from every memory.

Waitresses at the one hotel
for the whole trek tells our group
about the ruins and how
every year they sink a little deeper.
There was a picture of her dancing
on the bar.

We take a car to the airport
on the way back I forget
my silver watch in the shuttle,
and I’m sure that’s where because
I remember setting it aside
when I was sifting through
my backpack for a book on how
to get out of commitments.

Getting back from somewhere
far away is like remembering
the person that you were.
I don’t want to be like this again,
is a phrase that gets repeated
for a week or so, but we all know
the truth is you were never really gone.