Perhaps the deepest
and most basic feeling
is being lost.
Other people
follow the usual paths.
Even when they are lost
they move forward
along routes
already laid.
From childhood
I believed
I should be someone
capable of walking
those socially muscular lanes.
I never quite became
that person.
Resisting this
brings shame.
Powerlessness.
Partial solutions—
distractions,
temporary comforts
that soothe
without orienting.
The cure
lies in what was once forbidden:
permission
to feel
fully.
Without restraint.
Without interference.
What calls us to feel
also calls us
to think.