If, In the End

Then maybe the clichés,

the tropes,

the platitudes,

were true

and it really was the journey

and every road

every fork

every path

not taken,

mattered,

as much or more

than the ones

that passed beneath my feet,

dusty, gravelly,

well-trod,

and worn,

even though

some of them

led to beautiful places,

because tourists

sometimes get it right,

and I have sometimes

been a tourist

in my own life,

taking snapshots

of the big moments

while important

little things

happened off camera,

I might have seen

if I’d changed

my focus,

my shutter speed,

to something both

panoramic

and

microscopic,

but sometimes

I got it right

and captured

the right road,

the right place,

the right time,

even when

it turned out to be

a dead end.