The Road More Travelled (A Prose Poem)

 

Walk the beaten path and you will get where they want you to go.

They will cut down the trees to make the way straight for you

Kill all the beasts in the jungle so you will not fear to walk through

Pour cement so that you do not stumble

Put road signs and guard rails so you do not lose your way.

They will build oases with chain restaurants so you never leave the highway.

 

They will loan you money for you to buy a car

To drive on their wonderful roads

Where the trees used to be

Where the animals used to roam

Where the factory farms are now seen

Along the side of the highway.

 

And then they will build tollbooths

For you to pay for the roads they built

That take you where they want you to go.

 

The road to work will be well maintained.

The roads to Walmart and from Amazon will be paid for.

The road where the water park is,

Where the lake used to be,

Will be flooded with cars.

 

But no U-turns will be permitted,

No loitering along the way.

No walking, no public transportation

Just millions of people alone in their cars.

 

The unbeaten paths still exist

Though the streetlights and the car horns encroach

The unbeaten people still walk them

Treading lightly, so as not to intrude.

 

They reject the noise

The pollution

The destruction

They reject the fast food

And the energy drinks

And the billboards

 

But more than anything they reject the destination.

There must be some other way, they say.

There must be some other way.

A Poem From A Soldier To His Mother

I was going through some things at my mom’s house and came across something my father sent to his mother after enlisting. I thought a poem from a son to his mother during World War II might be interesting to more than just me.

There’s a lonely mother somewhere

And a lonely soldier too

He is many mile away from home

He’s thinking this night of you

He may not have been the best son

That a mother ever had

But though he wasn’t perfect

He wasn’t very bad

Like a million other mothers

To this country you gave a man

For we now have a war to win

And he’ll win it if he can

He appreciates his mother

Now, as he never did before

For he knows that he loves you

And will forever more.

Someday the war shall be over

And someday the fighting done

And the sons will return to their mothers

And the mothers to their sons.

Your Loving Son,

Walter

Creatures Of The Night (A Poem)

Every writer has a poem or two in his past. It’s funny how the theme in this is a theme I still deal with today. Tonight I offer you a poem, tomorrow, perhaps, I will tell you of the inspirations behind it.

Creatures Of The Night

Within the shadows of the world

Hide creatures of the night

They come alive when darkness falls

But always out of sight

In older days when darkness ruled

And real knowledge was rare

They were a cause, or so it’s said,

Of both hope and despair

They got their strange unworldly might

From those who would believe

Belief created fearsome power

Both above and beneath

As mankind and its knowledge grew

The shadows then receded

And under reason’s blinding light

The wise men grew conceited

The people came to disbelieve

In creatures of the night

For how could something never seen

Be wielders of such might

And so sickened, and disbelieved

And blinded by the light

They withered under desert sun

The creatures of the night

And all of those that still survived

Prepared for final flight

But there is nowhere left to run

No Shelter from the light

Disproved belief, no longer real

Crushed by reason’s iron heel

Creatures of the night