Forward Back

author's note:

The poem below refers to "my way".  But to be clear: I think we're both headed the same way--just taking different paths to get there.


FORWARD BACK

One morning on
a two-lane highway
patched with
black ice

my car swerved

turned a full one-hundred
eighty degrees--

then stopped
with its ram head
pointed in
the opposite direction.

The road had spoken
and so I listened:
I drove straight on,
back the same way
I'd come--

the choice obvious to me
after learning long ago
not to fight the dictates
of this determining beast
I call "my life"--

its driving lessons
have taught me
I must follow--must obey--
the curves and roundabouts
of my way...

I must follow my way.

So I returned
though I did not want
to go where I'd already been--

I pacified myself
with this thought:
the road would not be the same
since what was once right
would now be left

and I would be looking forward
not traveling in reverse--

besides...
what was behind me
would still be there
after the thaw.

© 2012, Michael R. Patton
dreaming steps