In Mongolia

In Mongolia

you find out

the earth is much bigger

than you thought.

Space surrounds you,

swallows you up.

The blue sky

stretches out so wide,

it might just break.

The green hills roll

into foothills dotted

with yellow trees,

just like home

except without fences

roads

walls.

You ride a small horse

much, much too far.

You try not to say

"tchoo".

You drink airag

and probably

offend people greatly,

but they are

too good-natured to

let you know.

You sometimes stop

at big piles of rock,

leave either a

blue prayer scarf

or an empty bottle of

Chinggis

(it is all the same).

You drive a lowrider

over the faintest

2-track,

and, for the first

time in your life,

know when the

moon will rise.

There is no point

in trying to speak

of it;

there you are,