Theories of Time and Space

You can get there from here, though
there’s no going home.
 
Everywhere you go will be somewhere
you’ve never been. Try this:
 
head south on Mississippi 49, one-
by-one mile markers ticking off
 
another minute of your life. Follow this
to its natural conclusion—dead end
 
at the coast, the pier at Gulfport where
riggings of shrimp boats are loose stitches
 
in a sky threatening rain. Cross over
the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand
 
dumped on the mangrove swamp—buried
terrain of the past. Bring only
 
what you must carry—tome of memory,
its random blank pages. On the dock
 
where you board the boat for Ship Island,
someone will take your picture:
 
the photograph—who you were—
will be waiting when you return.