I dreamed that you had gone to California

I dreamed that you had gone to California.

Struggling with luggage, you stepped onto a bus

And waved goodbye from the window. 

There would be a flight, ten hours or more. 

A day went by.  And then I realized

It had been sheer madness to let you go.

You didn’t know your way around California.

You didn’t know a single person there.

How could I be sure you were all right?

And I didn’t even know where you were staying!

Maybe you’d told your mother.  I tried to call her

But everything went wrong:

I couldn’t find her number.

I couldn’t dial.

The phone didn’t work. 

And all the while there you were,

A world away from me, in California.