And like the women

If I tell you that I looked
in long-forgotten places
where a man may hide
… an ordinary man
lost (perhaps) …
and there
found nothing I could recognise
nor anyone who looked
familiar
nor held a map to plan a route
nor pointed out
the way a man who’s lost
might find himself
back on the path
he thought he took
(a long, long time ago)
would you then pity me
or laugh
and send me on my way
and like the women known to me
and men like me,
turn impatiently to say
that is not it;
that is not what I meant, at all?