A Straight and Simple Path (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: We each have our own unique paths through life.]

I have sometimes heard of           but never found

            a simple             unchanged path

                       through life

              like a velvet carpet unfurled

                     straight to grand goals

                               such as Success

                                        or Wisdom

                                        or Inner peace—

So far            most of the paths I have ever known

       stretch for an interminable distance

                                        and swirl about

               in unpredictable ways

                                             more akin

                        to a ribbon tousled

                                                   by a breeze

They might extend

             right into dense thickets that scratch

                     at exposed ankles

         lead amid wild groves

                         where unnamed dangers prowl

       and loop back on themselves

                       to intersect with other paths

                           until it is impossible to tell

                               where I have left one

                                      then started on another

                          …among many

                                      similar difficulties

Even so                along those intertangled ways

           towards countless destinations

    I have stumbled across beautiful flowers

                            around sudden bends

                 seen bright rainbows

                             after heavy rainstorms

                 made friends of fellow travelers who

                               shared the same (or different) places

                                       they hoped to reach

                  gazed upon odd locations

                                 born in the mystical realm of reality

                                        beyond what I could have imagined

          and reflected on existential questions

                                   which developed          

                                          amid long stretches of silence

             Each turn of the road

                    has granted a new memory

                                 often with a lesson to match

                                         like personalized souvenirs

                      …unquantified but substantial enough

                                      to fill up

                                              my mind and soul

                  ….and maybe

                          it is in the twists experienced

                               while on the road

                                    that we find

                                         our true destinations

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