A Teenager's Muses

The Easy Way

There were two paths and a fearful, lazy manboy
In the one path, all he had to do was nothing
It was a calm sea,he just had to let himself drift
It was familiar with no surprises or exertions
He couldn't get hurt, he didn't have to sweat

The second one wasn't really a path but everything that was not on the first path
Fraught with darkness, chilly cold, tripping vines, neck-breaking gullies
It was the stormy sea
But somewhere down the second path
Incredible treasure abounded as the manboy well knew

Now the manboy, he had desires and potential
His desire could have been his compass
With his potential he could have achieved the treasure
But he was a coward, he feared the dark, the cold and the potential hurt
And he was a sluggard, he would rather not work until he had to

Several disasters later, hundreds of miles down the first path
The manboy had gotten used to letting the girls go
And changing his dreams to fit his laziness
He had wanted to be rich, now he knew he'd be lucky to just get by

And he began to regret, the wasted potential
The girls he could have had, the treasure he could now be treasuring
Our manboy, he knew wretchedness. And misery
But there was hope, the glimmer always is, if one looks hard enough
All he had to do was quit the path of complacency, that easy one

He became a man when he knew a most important truth
The easy path almost always leads to hell
And his compass, whenever he wondered what path was the right one:
"Is it hard?" - Yes, "Then it is right"

Now, the man can rise from the ashes of his past
Now, he can get the treasure
How, by remembering the truth of the compass

And the fear, though it be greater than all the darkness at night
He would acknowledge it, let it be and then disregard it, move on as if it weren't there
For what is modern fear if not cowardice justified?