A Lovely Town Under Heaven
While in the prime of my adolescence,
I left a lovely town under Heaven...
the sleek palm trees swayed softly
and the perfume of the stooping orange trees
sweetly entered into my nostrils;
I had no time for tears, only an uttered goodbye...
friends and neighbors cried,
wishing me immense fortune!
In my naiveness, I didn't see any sadness
and hoped to find my new home
under another Heaven...a town
never lurking in complete darkness,
because every star came out
in full luminescence to insure me I wasn't alone....
I walked other streets much longer and wider,
thinking of the old clock-tower
overlooking the busy square where folks chattered
and sipped their cappucino or espresso
with an incredible gusto;
I wandered among glass and steel skycrapers,
searching for twinkling stars,
but I found none that glittered!
A lost traveler...weary and stranded,
not found by anyone on roadways,
standing at crossroads and making hard choices;
a fortune-seeker never finding his treasure intact,
envisioning an elusive concept
at the cost of an unconceivable regret!
Time has finally lost its grip on me,
allowing me to free myself of its captivity..
making clarity even brighter than perception:
to anxiously see me walk in that town under Heaven,
and to hold in my trembling palms
the velvety petals of falling roses!
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