Two Poems by Stephen Bunch

Poetry – Issue 3 | February 2009

Preparing to Leave

I’ll need a name and a map
before I can go.
The rest I can invent.
The name should be as natural
as an old scar, the map too,
at first, topographical, but later
political, historical if I get lost,
and it should fold to fit unnoticed
inside any story I might tell.
And when I board an airplane
or bus, or a van pulls over
for my outstretched thumb,
I’ll need to forget
the faces of where I’ve been,
forget how long I’ve been gone.

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About the author

Stephen Bunch lives and writes in Lawrence, Kansas. His poems have appeared recently in Ithaca Lit: Lit with Art, Mudlark, Rootdrinker, Read his chapbook, Preparing to Leave (the title poem of which first appeared in The Literary Bohemian).

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Literary Bohemian

Poetry – Issue 3 | February 2009