When I first left my home
A young lad of seventeen
I could not get farther faster
Every new pasture was green

When I first left my family
Tired of being poor and sad
I decided that going away
Was the only real chance I had

When I first left my city
That bore, raised and nurtured me
I couldn’t live there another day
Its gritty streets forced me to flee

When I first left my friends
With whom I read, wrote and played
I thought I would make new ones
But soon my hopes began to fade

When I first left my state
Whose ways I had imbibed so well
I had to find new experiences
I had to learn new stories to tell

When I first left my country
Whose life was the only one I’d known
I wanted money, fame, opportunity
Oh how impatient I had grown

I sit here now, a man with no home
No family, no friends, no city, no state
No country even to call his own
Blaming his doings on innocent Fate

“You only leave home once,”
A wise man once said to me
In a world that is full of people
There’s no one left to hear my plea