Subterfuge

Perhaps to live abroad
           is to wear
a perpetual disguise
           to be a passenger
in an alien identity :
           but then there is the soul
that deep sense of self
           that brooks no deception
that stares out deeper
           than any mirror
that looks into the heart
           and knows why the rose
has been forsaken
           for the begonia
the acorn
           for the coconut palm

John Lyons