My thoughts require no passport
to return to my first home.
The only ticketing is that moment
that turns me to memory and birth.
And I am there, convinced
of a belonging citizenship denies.
A bureaucracy that demands
documents I cannot get
and politics I never supported
have exiled me to mere visitor,
but whatever’s lost is only cover
for the memories indexed
by place and time that finally
are everything of what I am.
Michael Penny lives on an island near Vancouver, BC. He pursues his interest in sustainable development as chair of his island’s Advisory Planning Commission. He has published five books and in over forty journals.