Summary

In the first stanza, the speaker describes what she felt while carrying a backpack to travel for the first time. Its weight and physicality are "like a meridian" on her body (4). In the second stanza, the speaker identifies herself with travel, saying that "This is how / to live" (5-6). While "on the beaten track," she goes to Krakow, Zagreb, and Siberia (6).

The speaker further defines her identity through travel in the third stanza, remarking that the restlessness and anonymity of travel brings forth a "kind of destiny" (12). In the fourth and fifth stanzas, the speaker explains why scare stories about an antimalarial drug don't faze her, and how she chooses to use cheaper methods of money transfer and exchange.

While doing "some overdue laundry" in the sixth stanza, the speaker begins to reflect on her travels (21). Constantly moving around has caused the speaker to...