Plans for One Self: Parting Counter Season, revised

Any visit lasting less than three days is a short stay at the heart of a long journey--
--

not every fall is autumn's leavings
not every flight escapes or reaches home
as it climbs expectations of landing
elsewhere

not every trip is a stumble

as a thick tumbler's journey to date
:to measure ends shorter than means
& awake to yet longer dreams--
breathes inspiration redundant
to all purpose absent in relative risk

three weeks tick three hours down, down
a short stay by any other name
costing the least of smelly passions pent
up in synonyms fueled bittersweet
as foreign to your mother's tongue
& frightened bare by her daughters, even
--