Connecting Our Dots
by Odin Roark

Life is always holding court,
Adversity on the stand,
Curiosity fueling jurists,
Imagination delivering verdicts.

The calligraphy of judgment’s missive
Needs not a complicated typeface.
Simple script suffices,
Revealing that dot-connecting
Doesn’t work going forward,
Without peering backward,
Where unconnected lines
Reveal future’s longing.

And so it is.

Down the road,
Intersections persist,
Where recall of past choices is unavoidable,
Reminding us off-the-beaten-path alternatives,
Still afford the quintessential challenge.

Dot connecting,
Our omnipresent summons,
Always delivers
A mind-bending cluster,
A glance outside the traffic jam,
Where steering our own fulfillment,
Remains the message.

Progress can deliver a driverless car,
Destined to take us through congested crossroads,
But using whose connected dots?