The Road Diverges

by Jack deCongo - Capricorn

I got to one of those places once,
one of those places in my life
where the path i've been trudgin' along
suddenly splits
suddenly diverges
into a million different possibilities.
I hafta make decisions then.
I hafta decide which route to take,
what direction to head towards,
whether or not i should just sit and chill
or head on back and see what i missed on my way here.
I remember getting lost in my dreams,
Looking deep into the impervious void
that is future
and seeing myself in a million different lives.
I'm happy in some of them,
I've got a girl who loves me as much as i love her,
my days are never boring,
my time is spent taking it easy
sucking out the marrow from life
without actually going into the jungle running around
half-naked.
I'm miserable in some of them,
family dead,
friends gone,
nothing to hope for in life,
except maybe a glimmer of charity
in the eyes of passerbys as i lie there
on the park bench, wild, overgrown hair
dangling down over my ears.
I think about where i am.
What i do each day, my routines,
no matter how unroutine i try to convince myself it is,
it's still a routine,
moving my physical self all over my small world
walking along the cycle of my life.
'Where should i break out of it?' i wonder
'How?'
Even when i find a way to break the cycle
i quickly slip into another.
I slip into the past too, when i hit that crossroads
(damn i hate using the word crossroads)
And so many memories surface,
and i wonder whhich ones are real
which ones are deceit
drudged up within my own mind, 
self-treachery
that occurs so often in my life.
I could have had a perfect life
If i hadn't ruined it.
But my life is perfect,
it's everything that i can hope for
with nothing and nobody to cloud my wishes.
And so i came to that point in my life,
that point where the road splits off into 
countless directions
and i did some thinking.
I thought about my life.
I thought about other people's lives.
I watched as people walked by, 
and sat down with me to think
or walked right by choosing thier path by instinct.
I thought about using instinct,
but that thought disappeared quickly.
I thought about the people in my lives.
Would i be anything without them?
Would they be what they are without me?
I got to the crossroads
(damn i hate using the word crossroads)
and i thought for a while
before i set off in one direction, 
almost completely blind
seeking to discover life
and hoping i'd find my people on the same path.
All i could hope for
is that the luck i've had close to me
up to this point
stays.

Reason for writing:

    No reason. No inspiration.    

Birth sign: Capricorn
Date created: 2001-02-21 21:15:45
Last updated: 2021-04-14 17:18:12
Poem ID: 60549

You need to log in to edit this poem if it is yours.

View more poems by Jack deCongo.