West Coast Boy

James Island, La Push, Washington. (c) Larry K. Vaughn (my dad)

A friend at work complimented me yesterday saying that I was definitely of a West-Coast mentality. That matches well with a serendipitous discovery in family history materials recently obtained from my mom. In a sporadic journal she kept in the 1970s, she copied a poem I had written after my family moved from the Seattle suburbs to Wyoming. That was quite a culture shock for this West-Coast Boy in my junior year of high school.

I have no independent memory of this poem but I do remember I was writing some poetry in those days. (West-Coast Mentality). I share it here:

April 1974

Where has it gone?
Where have I gone?
What can I say about 12 years?
     I can't say goodbye . . . it's still there.
     I can't say it's not important . . . it is.
     I can't say I'll be back . . . it won't let me - I won't let me.

But what do I do?
What do I say?
How do I feel?
And how will I tell them?
     How will they know?
     Will they even care?

I can never forget . . .
     Never forget them . . .
     Never forget the hills . . 
     Never forget the waters . . .
But have they forgotten me?

It is all a part of me
And I think . . . I hope
I a part of them

But where has it gone?

________
Thanks, Mom, for saving this poem. And Dad for the artwork.

Somewhere in Wyoming. (c) Larry K. Vaughn