No Quick Way

Whether to cut the string and gain release

Quickly, or patiently undo the knots?

‘Tis a decision on which all else rests.

Man has a nature that will never cease

To find some easy way like ancient Lot’s ;

Desire for quick success fires human breasts.

But it may be that in his wish for peace

Man will employ a stratagem that rots

The very fibre of his being ; in his quests

For happiness to destroy his golden fleece.

Not always is the trophy to the swift ;

The tortoise yet may triumph o’er the hare ;

And that which to th‘ Elysian fields can lift

May seem at first a pathway to despair !

 

Weekly Times     16.2.62