Rootless (Poetry)

These days I am a stranger to myself
it seems I look around to find someone
to set me straight — explain in terms of depth
who I am — the rootless person I’ve become

I hardly recognise the shapes of thoughts
those phantoms glide unbidden — jeer and shout
then sotto voce tease my inner ear
before I’ve any chance to work them out

All spooks and fancies filed as stowaways
the past has carried with me like disease
the fever of them clinging still aboard
despite the heave and roll of desperate seas

Whoever steers the ship it isn’t me
the captain as the joker rules the deck
the stars are set ... I dream unnaturally
of lives perhaps unvisited as yet