A Poem by Avi
I’ve gone to Chapel Hill, if you’re looking
I snuck out like a thief in the night
I’m riding the back roads through endless trees
Going further and further from sight
I am the boy in the schoolhouse
So remote in the lost countryside
And if you should want to come find me there
It may be a difficult ride
The people out here are unlike you
Not that I want them to be
But they’re raised drinking water so gentile and clear
And they’ve brought out the sweetheart in me
I’m not like the kid you’d remember
I’m relaxed and satisfied
I’ve come to terms with the object of failure
And setting past heartache aside
I’ve gone to Chapel Hill, if they ask you
Tell ‘em I wish they were here
It was not them that I tried to escape from
But I dreamed of a future unclear
And if anyone wishes to chase me
It would probably do them no good
The reason I’m here is the same reason that
I was someone they ne’er understood
by Avi Vinocur 5/24/11 on a plane from Denver to Raleigh
