There is a road that runs through my heart
opening backwards to all I’ve lived.
It’s the gold road, the royal way,
the small narrow path a foot-width wide
lit only the distance of a single step.
I know I can follow it any time I want;
all I have to do is turn around
and start walking in silence,
through darkness.
But it’s much more fun to dance in the citylight
jump and twirl down highways of lively crowds
passing through the bright colors of high life
where night never arrives,
beneath the spotlights and streetlamps
where we lose ourselves in the crowds.
And where would it lead, anyway?
Into dark cold, a cave, or dead end?
Into rain and wind and solitude?
No, better to shelter in the city
in the midst of the multitude
than to lose yourself, alone on the way.
And so this wisdom saves me
from the dark path back to my birth
as I run in company the other direction
trusting those at the front
who seem to know
where we’re going.
Clif Ross
.