Note to Self (Adagio for Colorado)

There are nights in which no rain falls,

The ones where electrical mustangs thunder through the clouds,

Which run across the sky like chariot races of old.

It is with one final storm that the stallions say farewell,

As my car plows through fields, away from Colorado,

A forever home of mine.

Before I go--

There is one final word I would like to say.

It has not been easy;

God, have the years been the most turbulent of my life.

But there is something I must get off my chest,

A thank-you, long overdue.

I say thank you to the silence,

The pitch-black hue of the Cave of the Winds,

Where darkness holds you tight in her arms and doesn't let go,

Where if you jump high enough you can see the stars,

Reflected on the buildings below.

I say thank you to all the mountains that tickle the sky,

The clouds that run in eternal races high above,

Dancing in azure.

I say thank you to the trees that grow to scratch tunnels into the earth,

The lakes as pure and crystalline as Heaven itself,

Towns as free and wild as "frontier" can be.

I say thank you to the wilds,

Where dirty paws can run through the snow,

Where streetlights shimmer on frozen glass,

Ferns and foxes underfoot, falcons and night-flyers circling overhead,

Ice-flats and mud-flows standing sentinel.

And I make a note to self of the beautiful people, 

Of the angels who will sing long after I am gone,

Of the faces I knew less than a second,

Whom still hold an infinite amount of love for me.

Most of all, I say thank you to the hope you have brought me.

Without you, Colorado, I would have never found myself,

And for that my gratitude will span centuries.