One Last Road
By John Herlihy

There is one last road I’ve got to take;
There is one last promise I’ve got to make.
Similar roads have now disappeared into the past;
Roads that offered adventure and life while they last.

Vagabonds make friends with June bugs on the dusty road;
Drifters end up confiding their worries to the obliging toad.
Am I just a transient tramp relying on the mercy of a stranger,
Or a lost trekker wandering in the footsteps of a forest ranger?

Still, questions drive me forward with convincing answers to seek;
Another country visited last year, another city explored last week.
Sometimes, I wish I had never started down any of these roads;
Often, I wonder about the choices that led me to unexpected antipodes.

No doubt the road leads somewhere and the search is always there;
It is done and dusted now with a few fledgling desires left to spare.
A little bird passing told me one last road still lay invitingly ahead;
The luxury of choices no longer exists to take another road instead.

The road down old age has its compensations, including peace of mind;
Desire and memory keep us moving forward as they are intertwined.
Memory sings of years of happiness now disappearing into the past;
Desire takes us down the last road home with peace destined to last.