Grabbing his backpack, he heads for the door,
and leaves everything he knows behind.

Hardly a second glance is cast
at the so-called home
that he had known for a short time.

His family had gone from house to house
meeting new people,
never having the chance to stay for good.

So now he walks away
looking for something new;
to find his place in the world.

Second thoughts are ignored
as he boards the plane to nowhere.

Lost, but determined,
he intends to find something.

He intends to find something worth staying for.

In and out of countries, he ends up in California.
Sunny, beautiful California,
where he meets his future wife.

He has finally found his place in the world.

But the unfortunate arrives
just as the fortunate comes to pass.

His anger issues rise
through the disputes and arguments
with the woman he loves.

Violence pushes through the anger,
but without ever coming to the point of death.

More than once, he tries to abandon his family.

More than once, a voice whispers second thoughts.
Second thoughts… his wife.
Second thoughts… his joyous children.
He encounters second thoughts once again.
And more than once, he comes back home –
where there is something worth staying for.

So he remains with his family
year after year.

They pull themselves through their problems
only for them to repeat again…

And again… and again.

But astonishingly, as one would think,
they never broke apart
like pieces of a cookie
that disappeared,
one by one,
until it was all gone.

The years that have gone by
could have been, if not,
the age of an olive tree.

He is the Runaway,
who breathes the air he has not breathed
and sees the people he has not seen
in a long time.

The Runaway,
who has finally listened
to those second thoughts.

The Runaway,
who has finally
come back home.