A Poem a Day (501): The four-pronged fork

 
NaPoWriMo 2022 was a fun month of writing, so for May I’m using the prompts from April 2021’s NaPoWriMo to write poems.
 
Day 2

And now, for today’s (optional) prompt. In the world of well-known poems, maybe there’s no gem quite so hoary as Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about your own road not taken – about a choice of yours that has “made all the difference,” and what might have happened had you made a different choice.
 

The four-pronged fork

 
It was a metal fork I picked up,
four-pronged, pointing in its steely way
on this dust-shevelled road.
A gust of rain seemed to choose,
but I was having none of it.
My own footprints veered to the left,
and they say right is always right,
but I chose to go straight ahead,
towards the rain-drenched horizon,
beneath the dripping sky,
sun-bleached and damp-warmed.
The blackbirds charmed me,
a flying long-tailed tit my guide,
and all was quiet on my way,
stepping from one zone to the next,
one time into another,
the past into the future stance.
And we are never ready for the move
until we can think ourselves in it.
The invisible gateway once opened,
what remained behind was left there,
gone now, a misted remembrance,
sealed inside a battered suitcase.
We see circles in the night sky,
of stars and moonlight curves,
and we know we’re on our way.

Copyright Vickie Johnstone, May 3, 2022