Choose!

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…”

So wrote Robert Frost. I live split

between diverging paths.

I must choose. 

One road is paved with good intentions. 

I know where it will lead – 

where it has always led, 

where God’s in his heaven

and all’s right with the world. 

A comfortable community

holds its members snug and warm.

When grass tries to grow through the pavement

it gets shrivelled by herbicides

or pulled up before it can upset any applecarts.

I know this road well.

Too well.

The other path is rough and narrow. 

I cannot see where it will go -- 

around the bend, off the wall,

over the hills and far away. 

Maybe nowhere at all.

Brambles crowd the path;

they grab with predatory thorns.

Loose rocks threaten to sprain my ankle,

perhaps to fall, never to rise again. 

But it might also lead me to dance with wildflowers. 

Sing with waterfalls. Float with butterflies.

Who knows?

I cannot walk with my feet on two different paths.

I must choose. 

Jim Taylor June 2018