Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

What good is this place, this other world,
Where the heart is ill at ease,

Where travelers reaching their destination
Discover they are lost. An error of navigation,

A trick of perception, forces two realities
Into a single space: when one is acted out

The other is on the blink. When the price
Of staying equals the penalty of leaving,

I turn full circle, renewing the past
Making a fresh start. All stories, heavy with promise,

Use two tongues or more. At home nowhere, I hop
On and off, most at ease in a state of passage.

Many times I have made the journey back
Then crossed over again to this shore. I arrive,

But my gaze lags behind, slow to make the shift.
When I’m under close scrutiny, my attention is sure

To be focused elsewhere. Here I am leading
Someone else’s life, while over there another face

Goes by my name. I take steady steps, but my heart
Keeps missing a beat. When I listen to the voice within,

Someone else interrupts me. I peer sideways to see
Whose shadow doubles behind me. The road long abandoned

Cannot account for my absence; the years ahead
Will not guarantee if another will seek refuge in my guise.

In the interim, I cannot tell which half of my face
I am wearing. As bold as my spirit is,

I cannot seem to quell a queasy feeling
In the gut. The truth is, I am neither fully here

Nor there. Never will be. So be it.
I am not on the slippery edge of some breath-taking

Rescue but in the middle of my stride,
Measuring out the extent of this madeover life.