Meandering Back To The Fork In The Road Poem by Sonny Rainshine

Comes a time
when past actions seem so foolish
to us now and we tell ourselves resolutely
that had we to do it all over,
we’d take a different path.

But would we have?

We see the diversions in the road
ahead of us, the estuaries and bayous
of the river we’re sailing down,
and wonder where they lead.
The young are curious
and easily distracted.

And had we not veered off,
had we dutifully followed
the worn path, the guiding current,
would we be writing the same poems,
singing the same songs,
dispensing the same wisdom
as now?

All paths and streams, it would seem,
can take us somewhere,
even if they come to an abrupt end
and turn us back to where we began.
Sometimes, even, we can retrace our steps
and seek again the paths we passed
back then when we were in such a hurry.
And armed with experience,
and a hunger for adventure
see finally what we missed.