Who Knows?

I searched and I searched outside in the blue

for people, places and things I knew to be true,

ever truer than my heart, my feet and my head 

’til, spinning in circles, and dizzy with dread 

I stumbled. I fell on the sofa to cry. 

Sitting up with frown, I then wondered why. 

Why couldn’t I just be a bright shining star 

when I’d tried so hard to be just what they are?

What? 

What they are? 

Who are they to determine what things I should do? 

Who am I to decide they know what to do? 

So I stood and I swayed as the dizziness passed 

then, standing still slowly, I felt different at last. 

Not the ‘different’ that feels like a stranger or other, 

but a different explorer for a search like no other. 

No searching outside in people, places and things, 

but a searching inside to find treasures that sing

of knowledge and wisdom and questions galore.

So off to the library, bookstores and more,

I found people, places and things to restore

the balance that patiently waited for me

to discover more truth in this vast human sea.

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

Author's note: Edited April 08, 2024