The speaker feels mentally lost, as if their mind has become a vast, empty landscape. The opening line, "my head full of outback," suggests a thinking space that is dry, wide and hard to navigate, with no landmarks to steer by. From there, the poem shows confusion in small, specific ways. The speaker struggles to tell "short" from "long," a basic distinction that has somehow slipped away, and admits to mixing up occasions, so that moments blur together.
The tone is quiet and a little wry rather than panicked. The phrase "with great difficulty" sounds almost formal, as though the speaker is calmly reporting a strange breakdown in their own judgment. The last line, "another me to cast," is open to interpretation. It might mean the speaker wants a different version of themselves to take over, or that they feel like an actor who needs to be recast. Either way, the mood is one of disorientation, with a hint of dry humor and a longing for a clearer self.