Traveler on the Road

Wherever I go, I leave no trace,
I’m only passing through this place.
For a while I do take part;
But in the end leave only footprints on your heart.

Your home is here, it seems to me;
I fell in accidentally,
Chanced to wander through your sphere;
I won’t for long stay here.

We collide like charges, me and you;
I’ll leave once you’ve transformed into
The next skin to envelop you;
Don’t worry – you transform me, too.

Soon I’ll leave, watch you recede,
Waving goodbye as the distance increases,
Watching you fade as onward I keep,
Soon, even in my memory.

I’m a traveler on the road,
Nowhere is my home,
And slowly I’m accepting that
I’ll travel on alone.

The story we’re cocooned in now, to me it feels so pure,
But I know we’re only in it so that we may change more.
And though I’d love to stop and say at last I’ve reached my home,
I sense the path does not end here, but continues to roam on.

Like music, I have disappeared
Into nowhere – was it even here?
Though no trace of it remains,
It’s left its mark in how you’re changed.

A phantom who is here yet not,
Does his work but leaves no spot.
Following the phantom’s footsteps, you may trace a line
That weaves throughout separate places, threading them with time.

I wish I could take one along
To walk with me as I walk on,
Never at an end –
I jump from book to book,
Some time in each I spend,
But in none I find my nook.
And if I may find someone,
To travel by my side, by the same internal guide,
Well, that would feel like home.

But I accept to go along this way,
Playing out the role assigned me in each place,
To go through what I need to,
Transforming constantly anew,
Carrying nothing with me between trips from here to there,
Relaxing all the iron grips I hold with out of fear.

We’ll have stories and adventures; but there’s no chance for permanence
With the villagers I meet along the way, in their abodes
Permanently settled; I can only hope to find,
With severed ties from all the world, another traveler on the road.


July 13, 2009