Sometimes when I am lost
I fall into a kind of trance as if sleepwalking
find myself unconsciously falling toward a place
known by few though by some
Its architecture began long before I get there,
for it transcends the physical.
Though I go alone, I always carry someone with me
perhaps an imaginary friend
and wear a silent, contained smile as if to say,
“I know a place”
It was conceived by no grown up but by a dearer creature
and was designed to veil the brashness that lay outside it

It has no exterior though
it has a lovely face for those who might not understand
and an almost apologetic one for those who do.
It is built of compassion and so, made to endure.

Anything new to enter is quick to have a healthy
coating of life rubbed over it to cloak and protect
it from any one occurrence that might make itself known
and appears forever too important.

It is here I am safe
and here I am clever
and here I am known
and here I cannot stay too long.

I know a place whose beauty is incidental
for it is more a piece of understanding and in
every morsel a lesson in survival, and it will last.

I know a place that is infinitely complex
and at once simple.
It knows more than me for it leaves me clues.
And in its fog there is familiarity and clarity.
I have always known it.

I know a place and it is you.

Bobby McAlpine – “Finding Home”  ©