names of places are to me
like a child i might have fathered
but never known
alberta is a blizzard i should've avoided
sacramento the chance i never took
baton rouge the girl who picked me clean
and ol abilene, that summer without friends
paris is the man i wanted to be
Kilimanjaro is the man i became
and that dream of love was austin
while capetown became my shipwreck
once, my father was butte
and his brother missoula
but my father became branson
after his brother went to deadwood
and malibu is who my mother should've been
but seattle she became
as a wayfarer, i go places
and places become shelves
and drawers where i keep things
and the truth
keeps them organized
