The Traveler

Final revision

Tired, worn, sick from the rain, the traveler comes home once again;
Inside no one is there for him, no one to greet him but the wind;
There's no sweet voice, no open arms, no one to see him but the stars;
Through thatched roof he sees them, bleary; the door creaks, loud; his bones are weary.

He observes his shaking body; frail, weathered, clothes so shoddy;
The wind, his only concubine, has made him weathered, lonely, shy;
She blusters through the walls and door, and through his feeble skin once more;
Raspy echoes fill his lungs; he wipes away phlegm with his cuff.

He feels he is made of tin, his chest a hollow, empty pit;
He feels hostile, void of hope, and doubts he'll ever be much more;
He tries to cry but finds that tears require hope for better years;
At barely smoldering hearth he stares as the wind blows ashes here and there.

He'd hoped the wind would be less harsh; last summer, it had warmed his heart;
"The winds of change," he thinks aloud, "may finally blow my fire out."
The traveler tries to find, in vain, wood to kindle fire again;
The stores of wood are all soaked through, his movements are too slow and crude;

He starts to speak, though no one's there, perhaps to nothing but the air:
"Take my spirit and carry it far, free from the ashes of this dead hearth;
Let me see once more the house where at Christmastime with joy we'd shout;
Friends gathered loyally at my side as year upon year would pass us by;

How far away they all seem now! Though still close to my heart somehow;
To feel a bittersweet embrace as into chocolate eyes I gaze;
While sweet strings play familiar tunes to passion under crescent moon;
And let me camp on hills of stone and sing for those who've kept me close;

Too long I've struggled with this wind; let her carry me off again!
And on the dark side of the moon, let me dance from dune to dune;
With feet that will not ache each day, oh wicked wind, take me away;
To stand on Saturn's lovely rings, and see the glory of all things;

Then take me to the underworld, and let my aching joints unfurl--
to rest with those who came before, to feel the warmth of love once more."