Travel Tip #3: Antarctica & Growth

by Bob King

If you stand at the South Pole
& take a step in any direction,
you’ll be headed north. If you
stand at the South Pole & take
a step in any direction, you’ll
be headed north, & if you keep
going, you’ll end up in very
different places. If you stand
at the South Pole & take
a step in any direction,
you’ll be headed north,
& if you keep going, you’ll
end up in very different places,
& you’ll never get to take
that first step a second time,
& you’ll learn to be okay
with that because canoes
or ocean freighters. Hot air
balloons or Zeppelins or
biplanes or Concords or
space capsules, & next thing
every place you’ve ever been
will take a new shape, each
jungle leaf not just a leaf,
but maybe a canopy, each
spice not just a spice, but
maybe a currency, each
raindrop a potential drink,
snowflake, or tear; each
cityscape not just a skyline,
but maybe a memory.
Not just a memory, but
an invisible & teeming
with life magnetic field,
equal parts repulsion
& attraction.

Bob King is an Associate Professor of English at Kent State University at Stark. His recent poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming from Paddler Press, Aôthen Magazine, The Purposeful Mayonnaise, Spare Parts Literary Magazine, The Viridian Door, Ink Sweat & Tears, Alien Buddha Gets Rejected Anthology, Bullshit Lit, The Red Ogre Review, Unlikely Stories Mark V, The Dillydoun Review, Emergence Literary Journal, Narrative Magazine, Muleskinner, & Allium: a Journal of Poetry & Prose. He lives on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife & daughters.