How to be at home
You are a great gift.
In the dusk I think you are a log lying at the water’s edge
but some small movement catches my attention
and we both stop very still staring at each other.
Then you relax and move
and I see your whiskers, and your alert face.
I see wet dark fur on a dog-like creature unfamiliar to me.
You move nonchalantly
turning and investigating in the shallows.
After a while, you take to the water
and swim off in leisurely fashion,
your strange thick tail visible.
I dash forward to the edge of a tiny jetty to see you go,
the ripples spreading out gently from your sleek progress.
Would you let me know
how I can be as at home
in my country as you are in yours?
I have knowledge to trade,
for example on the mind/body question.
You disappear in the dusk, in the water, behind a boat,
and your ripples fade.