Roads Traveled (Home Sweet El Paso)

I stood as if in the Garden of Eden
Appreciating the dots of human color as
Paradise, its fiery beauty clear
amidst the dust
Of a world which then was not mine,
Yet in leaving as if severing a vein of
Connection

feeling it deeply, as I came here to learn,
to see and experience the horrible,
the ugly side of life reminding me
of the Community I had left behind

and realizing that before I left the Star
I should have taped a note onto the door:
'Gone to Hell-- Be Back Later.'