as you enter

as you enter,
pay careful attention
there are things that you won’t catch
the first time around
there are details hidden
within the general contours
that can’t be ascertained
by passing acquaintance

we must become somehow foreign
to our most native soil
and see somehow deeper
than eyesight allows
the undocumented
abrupt milieu
intricate syntax
is unable to hold

yet even so
when husked of
its scenery,
whatever’s left over
can’t help but be
scarce

yet even so,
the scarcity of
somehow
opens within it
unlimited options

so again as you enter
remember tomorrow
which never arrives
until yesterday’s
done with
and again as you enter
whatever life you’ve been dealt,
recall the only real exit:
through a life lived out well.