Must Get Lost to Be Found
for Erica & John & Heino & Cedric

want to land
in the middle of an art movement
a community of artists somewhere
however far away from here
from these 700 islands
where tourism and artists don’t mix,
don’t meet

I want to fall in
among this community of persons
I dream of, I imagine being part of
like a cat from the sky

would they be startled
when this cat arrived
grab their possessions
in desperation to flee
would I have to say,
hay, it’s only me, to calm them

I want to fall in, knowing I’ll fit
if not from the outset, eventually
fall in clumsily among them
like my friend Orin’s cat

Big Wig would want
to lie in your lap
even if the newspaper
were outspread already
and you were reading

would fall through the evening news
or attempt to
news of its own to make
wanting to be included
not prepared to be excluded
from the story unfolding

as the world went round
as the day unfolded
or as evening descended


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
12:08 a.m. 2/11/07