If another curious soul asks
where are you from?
why are you here? This combination
punch usually ends with
what do you do?
Do only label-less
drifters find this agonizing
question or three
the search for small talk
a foot in the door
that tiny conversation because
you’re not from here, right.
Right, the irrelevant answer
a TV commercial between halves
gives a map, a milestone
a pigeon hole, get a leg up, you can
bet your home if you have one
they won’t remember
the answer for long because the outsider
is secondary and doesn’t know much.
Perhaps the beautiful don’t feel this or the young.
David Morgan O’Connor is from a small village on Lake Huron and now keeps home in
Jericoacoara, Ceara, Brazil, where a first novel progresses. His writing has been published in: The Write Practice, Collective Exiles, Bohemia Journal, BlueStem, The Story Shack, The Literary Yard, Fiction Magazine, StrayLight Magazine, Electric Windmill Press, The New Quarterly and The Guardian.
© 2015, David Morgan O’Connor
Halfway Down the Stairs 