By Mark A Leon 

I was 18
Newly found 
A purpose so pure; a soul naïve and scared
I had a rebirth 
Invincible to the kiss
I had just begun to go as far as I could reach
 
This was my calling
This was my beach
A sunrise for every place I’d call home
A sunset for every romance that never penetrated this rolling stone
 
On the road
Sounds of silence in my ears
A place to call home
A warm blanket to disappear
 
A loner who’d soon call the streets his home
A wayward soul writing a new chapter at every turn
A friend to few
A lover to many 
A reflection of a life that could have been
Yet so few had the guts to runaway 
 
From the lakes of the great North to the valleys drunk on the grapes of life
The touch of the ocean 
Angels in the snowcapped mountains
Bittersweet happiness
That’s what it felt 
Sober embrace in the warm caress of the bottle
 
A new day to the East
An island drenched in the storm of isolation
A time to for rebirth once again
To the East a place I used to know
To the West, someplace far from home
To the North memories frozen in time
To the South I await my next lullaby