why

today
was
simple;
I don’t know why I lost so much sleep over

last call for Delta Air Lines flight 295 to Shanghai at gate 25

check-in and security and all that, because
it all
passed
by
in a flash and before I knew it I was sitting in the terminal, waiting for my flight to start boarding.

passengers going to Yokohama and subway lines
please change trains here at Shin-Yokohama
thank you

travel is easy.
you just have to go through the motions
and let someone else bring you from place to place
while you sleep soundly in the cabin
or watch a two-year-old movie on the projector,
and you don’t have to think about why
you’re going someplace, or where you’re going,
because you’re content to know
that you’re
in motion.

am

no,
what I
should
have lost sleep over was
the aftermath.

if you see any suspicious-looking person or article
please inform our staff

travel
is
simple;
it’s what happens when you step off that’s hard.

halt at major road ahead

I paid my driver in a currency that I’d never touched before,
stepped onto the concrete walk in front of a building
that towered over me to say:

you
don’t
belong
here so
why did
you come?

I

and as it
asked me, I found
that I
had no answer,

only gray,
an endless
field of gray
beneath my feet,
sucking me in,
and I looked up at
the no-more-colorful sky
and I didn’t
scream
or cry
or —

here

I just
realized
that,
for the first time,
my itinerary
was
blank.

authorized personnel only beyond this point