keeping up with jones

this is a poem a great friend - erica oliver - wrote to/about me a few months ago.
and i love her for this.

there are very few who understand.
-----
The Nomad
Monday, June 22, 2009 at 12:12pm

A wanderer's heart
Is like his life
Nothing can make him stay
No one should expect that he will
Love him from a distance
His time here is short
There's more to be seen
Experience
And it wouldn't be fair to
Ask him, tell him
You need him there
Because he will
Either break your heart
And leave anyway
Or break his to stay
No one wants a broken hearted man
The house grows morbid
His selfishness
Is about preservation
The life he leads
Forced on him at 16
When his parents
Stopped providing
He learned survival
He learned to be who he needed to be
To get what he needed
He changes his name
Not because he is unsure or confused
But because he has more than one identity
And would be shamed if he hid it
It is a result of his enlightenment
The places he's been taught him
And he couldnt imagine leaving them there
So he carries them
In his pen and paper
But love misses out
She misses out
Because when he's gone he's gone
There's no phone
No address
When he returns
He just arrives
With his unique knock
That's why she never moved
He wouldn't be able to find her
Or he wouldn't try to find her
She greets him with
"I know why the caged bird sings"
He replies
"I don't, I'm an eagle"
He says
I don't know why you stay
She replies
For the same reason you leave

*inspired by a gifted mind and nomad