The Explorer

by Mark Hedden

It is so easy to forget what brings you here.
For three years now I have been sitting in this room
Listening to the sounds projected from the street.
The idea I had was that I would come as an explorer
To map out the city, to learn the customs and games,
And as much of its darker side, the irrational heart
As an explorer could learn.  But I had not reckoned
With my own heart of darkness, the loneliness
Of an observer, the malignancy of inversion.