Ending Up Where I Began Poem by gershon hepner

Going to a lot of places,
ending up where I began,
like my resumé that races,
hot air rushing through a fan.
I am now where I have been
before, and cannot really tell
if I am on a trampoline.
or KO’d, waiting for the bell.

Like mad men I have attempted
to bring coherence to my tale,
told by an idiot, not exempted
from disappointment when I fail,
hoping that my ends may just-
ify my means and my beginnings,
expecting though to bite the dust
when I’m in my final innings.

Inspired not so much by TS Eliot as by a comment Don Draper makes to the stewardess who came onto him during his flight to Baltimore in the first episode of the third series of “Mad Men”. “I don’t know, I keep going to a lot of places and ending up somewhere where I’ve already been.”

8/16/09