Monday, May 7, 2018

What Roads We Take

What Roads We Take
© Surazeus
2018 05 07

Driving swiftly on the highway of hope,
I follow secret signs to paradise
where I join in the drama of life,
entering the stage dressed in my costume,
perform role of my personality
to express the character of my soul,
then exit the stage of participation
and drive my car away into the world.

I drive along the highway in the sky
when the bridge arches over the broad river,
gliding quickly, seventy miles an hour,
in synchronicity through forward motion
with hundreds of strangers driving their cars
in smooth flow like water in river beds,
from our homes as the base of operations
to destinations for business and pleasure.

For millions of years we walked place to place,
moving across the landscape in small tribes,
hunting animals and gathering plants,
then camped on the shore of the flowing river,
built warm fires to feast under twinkling stars
and tell stories of our daily adventures,
or danced and sang till we drifted in sleep,
but now we drive swiftly, alone in cars.

Wanting to exit the race for success,
I pull over to the side of the highway,
and step from my car to stand in the grass
where I feel the timeless glow of sunlight
and the blowing of the breeze in my hair,
then watch all the cars zoom past in a blur,
amazed at how quickly we have evolved
from horses pulling wagons to swift cars.

Once Gaia tamed the first swift-running horse,
and Helius designed the wagon with wheels,
we started racing fast across the land,
competing with each other for success
by selling food and goods in market stalls
that we haul in wagons swift as we can,
racing ever faster to gain more wealth
till now we all drive on vast highway network.

For ten thousand years since we tamed the horse
kings have built empires spreading outward far
from citadels of power on ziggurats
by riding horses in swift cavalry
to integrate many nations in one,
connecting distant lands with wide paved roads
where people drive wagons in caravans
across the globe from China to Europe.

Technology changed our world on the day
at Collegio San Michele in Italia
when Eugenio Barsanti first envisioned
how combustion of hydrogen and air
can be harnessed to empower piston engines,
sparking the transportation revolution
when Henry Ford could design motor cars
so every person can drive where we want.

Replacing horses with combustion engines,
we drive cars ten times faster than before,
and zoom swiftly along vast maze of roads
from home to work to store to theater,
racing ever faster in competition
to win the crown of fame in game of life,
so the swift horse, who was long our best friend,
grazes forgotten while we drift swift cars.

Like Robert Frost, driving in quiet woods,
came upon the fork where two roads diverged
in a yellow wood, and he took the road
less traveled by, we humans have explored
countless roads that others had never taken
to measure and map our whole spinning globe,
building communities in every valley
connected by roads where we drive our cars.

What roads we take in our daily commute,
or cross-country journeys to seek new worlds
beyond the perimeter of our knowledge,
weave our souls in the tapestry of life
as we race faster on highway of hope
to increase our fame in drama of power,
driving swiftly through the maze of obstructions
till we arrive at gates of paradise.

Where once we passed by many roads not taken
we can swiftly backtrack again to find
new adventures in our vast maze of roads
because our cars are time machines that zoom
quick as lightning to the stage of new action
where we perform the stories of our myths,
competing to play roles of national power
as we drive swift cars on highways of hope.

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