You'd rush off to Patagonia
or Guinea-Bissau-- but no--
it'd turn out to be Brazil
or was it Tangier or Marrakesh?

Your disposable wardrobes of
surnames and True Loves and
storms of dissaffection ran
toward the further edges of maps.

You'd be old now, like me,
a veteran of frivolous loves
and meaningless hatreds and
escapes into far geographies.

You might, this moment, be living
among your cats and violets
in a big unpainted house
two hundred years old.

I want to think you'd be
finally at peace--and be
amusing yourself in memories
of explorations of impulse,

and not just another piece
of sun-baked real estate
in the wider world, beyond where
fresh starts at last run out.

John Birkbeck,at age 72, is a late bloomer, and had not published any poetry untill he was in his forties. He has since become the author of five books of poems. His poems, stories, reviews, articles and drawings have appeared in hundreds of magazines, newspapers, and webzines and anthologies world-wide. Back in the 1960s, John had formerly edited a gossip column as well as a tall-tales column. He is also the host and producer of a cable TV program called The Poets' Corner.

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