Don't Ask Me About Calcutta

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. - Thoreau

i went to south carolina

and found everything there was made in china

i don't understand

i flew to cannes, but heard some music there that was made in japan

i wondered how this could be

so i asked an afghan refugee

her skin was a dark tan

instead of getting an answer

she danced the cancan

then told me to clean the place and tossed me a dust pan

telling me that she wasn't a nurse and refusing to empty my bed pan

i made my way to dubai

flying through a dark, empty, cobwebbed sky

don't ask me how i got there, i don't even know why

i wanted to cry

but i only had one eye

and i needed it so i could find my way to brunei

because that's where i wanted to die

i guess you never know what you'll discover

on a trip where hindsight is blind, direction misaligned and your return ticket is declined

when things unwind with no guarantee signed

don't ask me about calcutta

where my once rich rhymes and sound mind were found begging in the gutter

Author's Note

"The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready." - Thoreau