TRAVEL POEM: I'm traveling alone, except...

I'm traveling alone,

except for the two Swedes who got lost with me in the woods on our way to a secluded beach tucked between two cliffs in the South of France, whom I drove down the side of a cliff in the middle of the night to get them to their hostel nearly four hours away,

except for my good friend who showed me Sion, her favorite town in Switzerland, where we hiked to the ruins of a castle and talked about life over pizza and wine,

except for the mountains and sunshine breaking through the clouds,

except for the older Russian woman at the bus stop who smiled and said, "See, I travel, you travel. We help each other in space. We are not so different."

except for the two girls, Spain and Italy, who danced until 3am,

except for the older man from North Carolina who never traveled abroad in his life and was now eating fish soup with me at the counter on Iceland Independence Day, whose wife and grandson were along for the ride, and the parade was outside, the rock band in the back of the truck, the woman on stilts, the protesters, the jugglers, the children in red capes posing for photos,

except for Hallgrímskirkja, the towering church in Reykjavik, where I thought of my parents and bought them a gift and heard the church bells ringing across the harbor, back toward where my bag is locked away with too much room for many gifts so I'll hand out pics and words and stories when it's the right time to give of this trip that I've taken all by myself,
except, except, except,
I've never traveled alone. 
God.
He traveled alone for a time so I wouldn't have to, and neither do you.