Way Out West

On the cold days here, I would hide my hands inside my coat and wonder what happened to the mittens My mom bought for me and why I never seemed to hang onto them for long. The sun would be low in the sky as I was on my way to school and I would amuse myself by blowing steam into the crisp clean air. I never liked the snow, the numbing pain from making bare handed snowballs and the throbbing burn that followed when you went inside and tried to warm them up. Every day I would watch the sun slide low across the sky and disappear somewhere warmer and far away.
Its cold here now, but soon enough the spring will return and the energy of the city and people will erupt much like the new life and colors of the season. This year, however, I will not be staying, I will not be grateful and celebrating, I've given up on my home and on the radical change that the seasons bring. When the rest of my friends will be breathing a sigh of relief and enjoying the good fortune that nature affords them, I will be packing my bags and heading west, stopping in every town that I have friends and slowly crawling my way towards the pacific coast and the warm and weird world that lies at the base of California. Its every Rhode Island boy's dream to go there and live in the sun and sand, amongst the myths and the mayhem, to walk amongst the plastic people with their sparkling veneers. So with love and sadness I say farewell to my beloved city, and all the wondrous people I call my friends, for they shall be missed, but they all understand. Itchy feet need to be scratched, and I need a little extra space and time, to see this wide land of mine, to stand in a different place, to swim in a different direction. Its gonna be a big WOW when I hit it, soon enough Ill be heading way out west.