The Long Way Round
(For my sons)
Your lives’ ambitious targets can be traced
In each direction my mind thinks to roam
Where I might find some aspect of your taste
That is your proud intention’s hopeful home.
I do not ask you how you plan to wrest
Utopian contentment from so wide,
So multiplex, ranges of interest;
Nor how priorities could be applied
To such a plethora of diverse aims.
For, as you travel where you choose to go
You’ll miss some object of your best hopes’ claims
And, though thereby you seemingly confound
Your dearest dreams, you’ll bravely say: “That is not so;
We just prefer to get there by the long was round!”.
