When Luminaries Flicker
By Carmen Ruggero

I followed a dream, and in my sight
the right one, for I saw it scripted
in stardust, glittering against the night
sky. I was chosen, it seemed, admitted

into a journey of faith well planned,
wholly for me, to blindly follow.
And obeying destiny’s command,
I soared to the blue as the swallow,

landing here, and then there,
and though no pledge was made,
I kept to – blindly; knowing not where
I was led, or if it would my spirit jade – 

how could it? When the road was lush,
and dawn blessed me with its light –
God’s whisper in the breeze, fears hushed.
How could the seed of hope be blight

by rainwater sent to nurture the bloom?
How could light rob me of sight, blinding
me to miss the prowling doom?
Did I not see the stretch twisting… winding?

No. I couldn’t think of a winter so cruel
when I was fresh and tender as spring.
I gazed at the stars with the eyes of a fool,
and I knew not, the honeybees could sting.

Now, as luminaries flicker, and dark is nigh,
at road’s end, I know the choice was mine,
for * I – I took the one less traveled by,
pen my life with stardust and hollow rhyme.

Carmen Ruggero .2004

* “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost