38

Only a Road Branching

It is a step into the dark, this freeing you

to hide in your own herded place.

I was not sure I could leave behind

that oblique touch of an archetype

that shocked me to attention.

And yet…you are only yourself,

as I am mine, in man’s continuum.

Was it only a road branching to the north I passed?

At least let there be no fear in recall.

Hear me sometimes if the wind stirs

an oak tree to its epiphantic whisper,

and by night I shall greet you

brief and bright among the western stars.