Graduation Poem

You knew it all by heart.
The blue city lights and noisy coffee shops
Made you fall madly in love
And you met him on one of the every-changing buses.

And the traffic lights were green eyes
That knew where you'd had your first kiss
And the size of the feet that walked
Each downtown street and every block of Squirrel Hill.

And it was all so deliciously normal
And time didn't seem to pass like cabs on busy streets.
So you bought more fries at Uncle Sam's
And kept saying "yins" even though you knew it wasn't really a word.

But even as you loved the small-towny bustle
And the days spent exploring roads you already knew,
You began to grow a little taller
And realized you could leave, if you wanted to.

So you did, and you cried a little as you watched
The blue city lights, eyes of the city you knew so well,
Wink goodbye from the rearview mirror.
So you kept your eyes on the highway, nostalgic pavement under car tires.

And even though you went everywhere--
New York, Detroit, Montana, Kentucky--
And saw everything, nothing compared to home.
You always go back to where you come from.

Back to the city with the yellow bridges,
Back to the too-familiar street names and stores,
Back the small-town hustle and bustle
That had come to define you.