rambling man

Rambling Man -Where Do I Belong?

I have been a rambling man

All my adult life

Grew up in Berkeley, California

Went to College in Hayward and Oberlin

During my lost year

Lost in a fog of booze and pot

Then I came back to reality

And went to college

In Stockton, California

The central Valley

Ohio transplanted to California

Then after four years in Stockton

With extended weekends

and breaks in Berkeley

I became an expatriate wanderer

Peace Corps worker in Korea

Then taught ESL in Korea

For four years

Occasionally returning to my home

But always wanting to be elsewhere

Then back to Korea

And then Seattle for four years

Driving back and forth to the bay area

Stopping off in Southern Oregon

Eventually bought a house and duplex

In Southern Oregon

Vaguely thinking we would retire there

Some day when my rambling ways were over

Then back to Korea for three more years

Then I joined the Foreign service

And my wife the military

And I wandered the world again

Always somewhere

Always dreaming of my next somewhere

Never there

As I was a permanent expat

And a diplomat to boot

Never a local

But never really felt I belong there

Or in the America

That was becoming more and more

A foreign land

The longer I stayed away

I stayed on in DC for almost ten years

Off and on

But never really felt that I belong there

I was too West Coast in my heart

And DC seemed to be

Just a place to stay

In between travels

Stayed in Thailand

Then later India

And Eastern Caribbean

And later Spain

Traveled to 45 countries

Lived in ten

And now I am retired

Still torn between

living the expat life

In Seoul, Korea

And returning to the West Coast

And occasionally back to DC
and Florida as well

And I wonder

Where do I belong

Where do I belong

Other than wherever

My wife and I end up

Neither here nor there

Half way there

And so is that my fate

Never to really belong

Never to have roots in the ground

Always wanting to be somewhere else

Always a stranger in my native land

And a stranger in my other home

Across the sea

There is no answer to these questions

As the rambling urge comes again

And I prepare to move yet again

Hoping someday I will be

Somewhere where I can stop

These rambling blues

And really be there

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