Note to the annual six hundred:

Yes,
please do leave this country
that for the past 20 years
has hemmed you in,
cramped your style,
and kept you from
truly being yourself.

Go,
discover the world,
drink of its pleasures
and dance in its generous spaces
where even light hearted fantasy
can blossom into fulfilling passion.
But do not

forsake
what belongs to you
and to you alone.
For even when you have
made the world your intimate
and familiar playground,
no-one else can ever own
what you now call home.



- 5 April 2008