The Desert Edge (Part Three)

Looking at him I wondered why he wanted to leave, to go on I knew the hardships of the desert and its forge I knew the horrors of the jungle beyond the great wall of silent vines I could see the deep pits and smashing waves of the chill blue sea Even as I saw this I saw too the weary lines and wrinkles on his face and eyes He was tired from his long walk through the desert a walk of many years Perhaps it had been a walk of a lifetime; a life spent struggling for one more step “Why not stray awhile,” my voice cracked for all the years I had not used it “The roads before you are just as hard as the desert you left behind” He smiled but not unkindly and his satyr friend ceased to play instead he to looked upon me And the owl turned her head and those wisdom filled eyes my way and the wanderer spoke “It is true I have walked a lifetime through the desert and now I am weary of the road I could sit here and forsake before me putting off forever The choice of where to step in wonder next, putting off forever the choice But the desert, nay the road, has taught me a devious secret I will share with you You see I too once sat where you sit never walking down the long road, never choosing In the years to follow I found that I was moving down another road, I had made a choice I had chosen to walk without moving, to walk without wonder, without wonder I walked” He left me then in silence and no look over his shoulder did he spare me I watched as the jungle of Heaven’s Gate swallowed him up and for a time I listened To the song of the satyr playing a hauntingly sweet song A day passed or maybe it was a month or a year and I heard it no more I find myself in this day standing on the bluff overlooking the great sea, Its waters crashing across the rocks many feet below and the waves seem to boil Farther still I see them thrashing and undulating into forever over the horizon I see a swim before me like none other, I see a road I have not taken, a road untested There beneath those deep blue waves is darkness vast and empty, full of life All I have to do is step off this cliff and fall, fall into my future It is cold out there in that sea; I will be alone and yet like the wanderer from the desert Perhaps I will hold a friend, maybe carry one, and wonder through the sea My heartbeats swiftly, my stomach twitches for I do not know I only . . . Walk in wonder he told me I will wonder and learn