peregrinus

She said it in the parking lot of an Applebee’s

Which is where interesting people go

To be told what they are

The luminescent Halo of the sign doing its best

To consecrate the moment.

You are an interesting person she said

And I thanked her

Because I have been interesting my whole god-damned life

And I have learned to receive it

The way you listen to the doctor,

Nodding

Already calculating the prognosis.

Interesting is what you say

When the word you want

Would require more paperwork

It is the taxonomists hedge

The naturalists note before the pin:

Specimen: male, solitairy,

Given to excessive introspection

And the wrong kind of eye contact.

I have been this way since the third grade

When I told Mrs Altenhoven that clouds

were probably lonely

And she looked at me the same way…

That particular softening

That is not warmth but

Its more clinical cousin.

What I have never been:

Easy

Obvious

The kind of person you stop wondering about by the second drink

What I have always been:

A foreign country

With beautiful weather

And a complicated visa situation.

She meant it as a compliment.

I sense this in the way that the meteor

Was probably breathtaking

Before it became the extinction event.

Back in the car I sat for a minute

The engine off

Watching the Applebee’s sign

Throw its red conviction across the asphalt

And I thought about all the things I could have been instead:

Legible

Portable

The kind of person who fits nicely into the available space

Without the need to sit on the lid until it latches shut

The word peregrinus means stranger

It also means pilgrim

The difference

Near as I can tell

Is whether or not there is anyone waiting for you

At the other end of the journey.