ON PATH FINDING

"There are countless roads
on all sides to the Grave."
---Cicero

This path
does not lead anywhere.

It goes forever on

& you're mistaken
if you think Wisdom or Love
await you where you're taken:

Love's a myth

& no real path
will lead you
to its pith;

while this way
you've so recklessly chosen
can't be Wisdom's Path:

Wisdom's itself The Path!

Look: how your cockeyed way
loses itself
a little on ahead

--The wisest path
presents its goal
right from the start

--But you're a gambler
( after my own heart )

& you will bet
surely this is The Path

to Love, and after
you've discovered
it is not:

you'll surely bet
it is th'Wisdom-Path!

And when you find
it's not the way

to Wisdom
any more than to Love

you'll surely bet
it is Th'Path

to Glory
or some such

& then Some Other Such

and Such Some Other

till you find

your Tombstone
shattered

& in all different places
scattered

by The All right wayside

of the Whatever Path
you think you've left

Then you glue IT back

and you set IT up

(and you start a garden
where you dropt):

IT is
Your Path
and nothing more--

Then, if you will,

Set up your Grave
as quickly as you may

that you won't have to go
one long & weary

way long & weary

just only to find Your Grave

--If you can find IT

when you can find IT