Traveling carries with it the curse of being at home everywhere and yet nowhere, for wherever one is, some part of oneself remains on another continent.
—Margot Fonteyn
(Or I create some découpé poems that are taken from random Travel + Leisure magazine articles.)
Edit, 31 May 2026: I originally posted a powerful pull as a single chapter, but I wrote a second poem/chapter (which has a different destination), so I gave this work a new title.
There’s also a more detailed explanation given in chapter two.
After spending 2 decades creating a life abroad, an expat returns to their place of birth.
Most of the words I used were taken and rearranged from this online article on the T+L website.
Somewhat confusingly, the article in question was published under the title A Taste of the Old West in its May 2025 magazine issue.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
I stood atop a
rocky precipice
on the prairies
of Montana.
Before me was an
all-encompassing
sea of grass
and the sun
a brilliant garnet shade
in the sky.
Montana’s wide-open spaces
and its vast stretch
of green horizon
lured me back to
my family’s cattle ranch
after 20 years in Germany.
Now I am
looking for a way
to survive
in a home
that has changed.
Two of the words I used in the poem, back and way, didn’t actually appear in the article. I cut them off from the words horseback and ways.
The Margot Fonteyn quote I used for the overall summary is from this link.
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