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NaPoWriMo 2021: 4/2/2021

And now, for today’s (optional) prompt. In the world of well-known poems, maybe there’s no gem quite so hoary as Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about your own road not taken – about a choice of yours that has “made all the difference,” and what might have happened had you made a different choice.

Find the information here: https://www.napowrimo.net/day-two-8/

A Different Path

So many paths crossing each other, 
some looping around 
some stopping with a dead end 
the path ahead of me like the path behind me 
is trodden with footsteps 
going in two directions with uncertainty 
Each path may lead to a brighter endpoint, 
but each of those paths 
has routes crisscrossing  
like tendrils across a beating heart 

When I look at my life 
and think of the path 
I wonder if choices 
are like adding in math. 

Do your choices remain 
the same either way 
waiting for you to come back 
some other day.  

My job and my kids 
my family, my friends 
all would be different, 
a new means to the ends. 

Change the arrangement 
of numbers and names 
it might still have happened 
like rules to the games. 

With each new decision there comes a fresh prize 
the prizes awarded would not be here as they are 
if the game of life were to take a different path 
who knows what would or would not be.  

©2021 CBialczak Poetry
NaPoWriMo 2021

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25 thoughts on “NaPoWriMo 2021: 4/2/2021”

      1. Thanks… this isn’t just about a bad day, though. I feel like my life is at another crossroads… do I ride it out here miserable until COVID is over, not knowing how long that will take or what post-COVID life will be like in the first place? Or do I move somewhere that might not be so hostile to my values and lifestyle, with fewer COVID restrictions, despite the fact that that would certainly involve a huge pay cut, and also a lot of unknowns (and culture shock about other things)? I was at a similar crossroads in 2005, and I opted for a short move instead of a long move, but now I’m questioning if that was really the right decision.

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      2. Greg, It is crazy but that is almost identical to the situation David and I are dealing with. Anywhere we go means he needs to find a new job which could potentially mean a pay cut. Then even selling my house, you never get something “as nice” as what you sell. And then where do we go? Do we go where we want or go where the jobs might be better? Do we look for a house that could potentially be our forever home or do we look for something temporary until it falls into place? The problem is, when does it fall into place. I feel like I am in a consistent limbo and it makes me crazy. David lives in my house with my dog and guinea pigs 1200 miles away. I live with my father in a condo I don’t like and have no friends anywhere even close. Is it all about money? I would love to know what to do…

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      3. Yeah… I hear you. Fortunately, real estate is so much more expensive here than it was when I bought the house in 2008 that I very well might be able to sell this place and get something nice enough wherever I ended up. But I don’t have anywhere specific in mind, I’m mostly just wanting to run away. That’s why I didn’t move very far when I felt like this in 2005. And, especially these days, there’s no guarantee everything would fall into place somewhere else… some things might, but other things wouldn’t. I felt like life was finally falling into place before COVID happened; that’s why this is so frustrating…

        And for me, a new job somewhere else would 100% certainly be a huge pay cut. That isn’t a maybe for thing, it’s absolutely for sure.

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      4. I guess it’s easier because I don’t have to look for work. Taking care of my father is full-time work! I just have a vision of where I want to be…I don’t want to have unrealistic ideas though. It is very hard. So much uncertainty.

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      8. Exactly. I mean let’s say you are 30 minutes from your job. Maybe all you need is to move 30 minutes in the complete opposite direction and everything is new. I would think that in a state as populated as California and others, moving an hour away is a whole new world.

        Liked by 1 person

      9. That’s true on the local level, but I would still be under all of the same ridiculous state regulations and ever-changing and contradictory COVID rules. It’s getting to a point where my conscience might not let me stay in this state…

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      11. I don’t think anyone can really help me, this is something I have to figure out myself…

        If Jefferson became a state, I would probably move there, that wouldn’t be far to move, but that’s pretty unlikely at this point.

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      15. I can’t. All of the news about COVID seems to just want to keep people in this perpetual state of fear and hopelessness. I can’t ignore the news, because then I won’t know if some perfectly normal human behavior will become illegal all of a sudden.

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