Time and space are all mixed up

after a long journey home—planes,

buses, trains and taxis

merge into one thing: moving forward,

always forward, never back,

nothing to do but go on,

looking at unfamiliar landscapes

and plowed fields and arriving

somewhere else, book into

another hotel in an unknown town

unpack in another strange room

with a disappointing or perhaps,

surprising, reassuring view

of a laurel tree or dome.