I Never Left You

I NEVER LEFT YOU When youthful restless hearts hear defining calls With volcanic strength they will respond The impetus for adventure overrides All rational thoughts, out of window they go For youth knows no bounds of daring appeal Twenty I was, when I heard the “buzz”, With gusto and a lick of good sense I made the run Carpe Diem was my exalted, exuberant cry So I followed the path to places to me unknown To her, I whispered with pain and sorrow I must seek what the world to my lot bestowed But be assured that one day for you I shall return  Feeling liberated and not knowing why Effusive and with feigned bravery I bid to all farewell The beyond had the smell of fragrant thrills  From America to America my journey began Imbued with hope, dreams, and strong will I began carving a new life, a new beginning  Dreams, goals ,and desires within me abounded To fail was never a contemplated option For failure the young bravely defies All those memories of a half century ago Come back to me in flares and bursts of fading energies Now that I am approaching the sunset of my days Wondering wastefully how it might have been Had I not pursued the Echo of that life changing call That outcome will never to me be known But oh! How I long and yearn for that love I bid farewell My ashes will one day fertilize a seed above that green hill From that seed a tree will grow into a refuge To shelter, in hot, sunny or stormy days, living fragile things Then I shall sleep eternally in tranquil peace Knowing that I kept, though belated to her my promise  And in serene harmony, proclaim, “I never left you my beloved Brazil”'.