Which Road
By Anonymous
If you could go back to the forks of the road,
Back to the long miles you have carried the load,
Back to the place where you had to decide
By this way or that through your life to abide,
Back of the sorrow and back of the care,
Back to the place where the future was fair, –
If you were there now, a decision to make,
O pilgrim of sorrow, which road would you take?
Then, after you’d trodden the other long track,
Suppose that again to the forks you went back,
After you found that its promises fair
Were but a delusion that led to a snare;
That the road you first traveled with sighs and unrest,
Though dreary and rough was most graciously blessed
With balm for each bruise and a charm for each ache, –
O pilgrim of sorrow, which road would you take?
