To deliver an e-mail
It says--This is too hard
Good-bye
Sadie steps on oceans
And the cold water makes her determined
She walks on deserts
And the heat makes her look back
She's traveled further than this
But never in a straight line
So why is she so tired?
And when will she be home?
She hums an old blues song
Called 'Don't Come Over'
And remembers that the man who sang it
Lived yesterday in spite of dying
Sadie's earrings are pierced
And they have been since she was eight
A demand made by her mother
A rather sad Southern woman who never could make a decent pancake
Sadie grew up looking for someone to love her so much
They'd ask her to take her earrings out
When she did, she held tight
And he exploded into a million pieces around the world
She found all his pieces and put him back together
But he got stuck in the last place he was--somewhere in upstate Australia
Now he sits in a place with black and white tiles
And mumbles like a crazy person
'Do they really think I'm crazy here,' he asks her
And Sadie says--'They think you're normal. But they think kangaroos are too. So who can say?'
She catches whatever's spilling out of his mouth
Then makes her way back out into the snow
Snow in Australia?
Why not, she thinks
But one day the snow is too high
And so she has to sit with him
And the extra time is too much
And she realizes she can't hold it all
I have to let it drop
She thinks
And--she thinks
This will really throw him between the tiles
And it does
But still, she delivers her e-mail
Then she stands in front of the Taj Mahal
Then the Louvre, then an endangered penguin
The world is an elaborate place
She thinks, side-stepping a crack in the foundation
It's possible, she thinks
That I would have kept doing this
But it takes two lifetimes to get to him
And once you're there, all you can do is go back
So she decides to walk across the world
And then start over
Luckily the world keeps giving her
More places to walk
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