I have good stories
Years spent abroad
Late hours cashiering

Strangers on planes, trains
Giving me rides in vans
To Shinto shrines

Days spent lost
On mountain peaks
In foreign cities
Danced on table-tops 

Bombs exploding
Yards from my car
Rioters throwing rocks
At police, over my head

Earthquakes, tornadoes,
Hiking on volcanoes 
By moonlight

I have good stories
But you’ll never hear them
If you don’t start
To ask.