Which Road

Which Road?
2015

If you could go back to the forks of the road
Back the long miles you have carried the load;
Back to the place where you had to de- cide
By this way or that through your life to abide;
Back of the grieving and back of the care,
Back to the place where the future was fair-
If you were this day that decision to make,
O, brother in sorrow! which road would you take?

Then suppose that again to the forks you went back,
After you’d trodden the other long track;
After you found that its promises fair
Were all & delusion that led to a snare-
That the road you first traveled, with sighs and unrest,
Though dreary and rough, was most graciously blest,
With balm for each bruise and a charm for each ache-
O, brother in sorrow! which road would you take?
-Nixon Waterman