journey

maybe that's why
I love the journey
so much

because everywhere you stop
to fill up on food
 or fuel
to stretch your legs
 or explore
to smell the flowers
 or feel the snow on your lashes

this is someone's home
the setting of their story
the streets they know
like the back of their hand

but not yours
no one here knows your name
& they won't ask you
how your folks are doing

they're strangers to me & you
and someone else's best friend
they have stories to tell
& if you look closely
you'll see some written on the walls

this is why I love the journey
to be a stranger
In a strange place
to smell the air of another city
to watch the world go by through the same window
& to come back, having left a piece of yourself behind
& replacing it
with a new piece
making you
a different you
than you've ever known before

you're going to pass people
people who will go to sleep
in their homes here
& wake up in the same place
as the weeks preceding

for a split second
you may make eye contact
and you'll share a smile of unfamiliarity
& common kindness

then tomorrow will come
& you'll be gone
to a new place
scattering petals of yourself
down the road

 that is the beauty in the journey
the discovery
of them
of yourself
of just how big this world is
In the discovery that we're all just people
strangers to one another
on the road to somewhere
where nobody knows your name

& realizing
how great
the journey
can be