1992 stumbles and missteps

degree in hand

job in another far land

fell apart

the chris columbus

of our enterprise mistook

the impact of his pitch

hired too many teachers

for the clientele delivered

by his english language salesmen

last on, first off, i am no longer

wanted on the voyage.

did cristobal’s crew master

do it this way? hire too many

have to leave a few

standing on the spanish docks

watching ships set sail without them.

they would not find that fragment

of map imagined into god, gold, glory

and i would not teach in taiwan.

for my part, i’d finished

in 91, and landed; now stranded

on 92’s shore, entirely unsure

what horizon to pursue.

set free, what did those men do?

were they, like so many, adrift

after four hundred years

of occupation and latterday war?

mooching about spain, wondering

what would be next, now that

the moors were gone.

is there a degree in regime change?

whatever became of

all those post dock fellows?