Saudade

The desire to be afar

A boy, I moved from coast to coast,

Learning that five years was as long

As a home in any state could last:

To stay in one place for good was wrong.

The Portuguese explorers knew

This hunger-the urge that makes a man

Seek another world. The blue

That lined their west pulled the sun

Beyond their shores. The sailors wondered

Where the sun kept going. What country

Could call down such fire like a bird

To a branch, fusing sky and sea?

A man, I feared the fog and rain

Of Seattle would seal me in their gauze.

So I joined the poster navy: men

Turned gold by the sun, like all those

Who search for home in the horizon.

Five years I crossed the Atlantic

Until my own land had grown foreign:

Strange enough to call me back.