To fight the urge to pack and leave,
“Be gone, my dear, your world is wryly.”
To seek answers of within,
To question why you haven’t been.
To walk, wonder, and explore…
To be a part of new culture’s lore.
To spend time with strangers beyond,
Learning quickly how to bond…
To travel slowly back in time,
To visit through history, a city’s prime.
To tear when told of ancient wars,
To cry when seeing that humanity ignores.
To feel a part of somewhere new,
Always belonged, yet never knew…
To dress in colors of a town,
To be surrounded by frocks and gowns.
To be veiled by a Moroccan woman,
To hide in the desert by covers woolen.
To greet a sunrise on a dune:
“Hello Grandma, we’ll meet again soon…”
To miss a place you’ve never seen,
To hear it shout: “Leave your routine!”
To long for people you’ve never met,
To know that a stranger is no threat.
To care not for a future controlled,
Simply let the future unfold!
To float on waters darkly unknown,
To look within and suddenly, atone.
To let the waves wash your doubts,
To completely forget about that lout!
To leave the past far behind,
You’ll meet better, in due time.
To hike through lovely virgin greens,
To follow the sound of tambourines.
To walk on paths that lead to treasure,
To be confronted with beauty of no measure.
To be your own tour guide for once,
Exploring, listening to “As the Rush Comes”
To see in person your dream’s fantasy,
To leave behind modern world vanity.
To feel whole and evolved,
To know your worries are absolved.
To understand and sympathize,
With a history you may not internalize.
To write home that you are safe,
To let them know you are no waif.
To say you miss them but here is home,
To note that home is where you roam…
To explain your truthful, endless glee:
“I am happy, I am free!”
To spend your coins on travel mode,
To see through window that endless road…
To carry nothing save a small bag,
To avoid that fruitless major lag.
To know your life is forever changed!
Perhaps I’m a gypsy, no, that is deranged.
To look at a map and close your eyes,
To point to a place and tickets buy.
To embark yet again on another adventure,
To feel the excitement brew in your center.
To say your goodbyes and smile away:
“This is my life, no, I cannot stay!”
To remember the day when it all started:
To see that solemn image of your departed.
To keep the promise you then made,
To hold on to the face painted – dead gray.
To keep your sadness tucked aside,
Allowing promised travels to purify…
To return to the place they call home,
To share virtue like an opened tome.
To work and save and return to routine,
To calm yourself: “I leave the seventeenth.”
To know you don’t belong where you are,
Your soul is hungry, the food is afar…
Oh, Wanderlust, you mysterious creature!
I once shouted “Gimme stability” like a beseecher.
Now I wander through lands with a dream,
Of meeting a world I’ve never seen!
I’ve fallen in love with the hope you provide,
That she travels with me, my path – forever sanctified.
© 2013 Stephanie Alfaia Gomes All Rights Reserved