Poem for the SVP

I thought I lost myself in a conference room.
Gleaming mahogany table
Veneer of glossed lips
Smooth hair and ideas shining like diamonds.

You sat across from me
Thinking you had lost yourself, too
Amid a parade of pressed suits
Expensively understated shoes
And our brilliant performances.

I do not know exactly where it was
That I lost my way.
In a San Francisco barroom
Or a rickshaw in Kathmandu
In a desert paved over with strip malls
Or a carpool line somewhere in Utah.

I do remember that I was trying
To create one beautiful thing.
Something that could light the way for me.
And for you.
Like day breaking through the shadows
Or a small child beaming with trust.

What I want us both to know,
What I cannot say aloud,
Is that we can never really be lost.
There are whole castles inside us
Even right now.
Even though these beige walls
Are trying to kill us.