Reading a Map

For every trip we take
We always check the map;
We browse all routes to navigate
And choose the fastest lap.

If we hit the road in time
And circumvent delay,
We’ll keep our plan, our paradigm,
And hold the narrow way.

But best-laid plans go wrong
When roads or weather fail, 
Or accident or flat prolong
Our nicely mapped out trail.

Yet when we don’t complain
And take another road,
Adventure waits on new terrain
(Alluring episode)

For maps can show the streets
But they only go so far.
Sometimes it’s in off-beat retreats
That’s where the stories are.

(Today we got a flat tire, so I ended up writing this poem while I waited for it to get fixed. It’s amazing how fast the time flew by! I copied the rhyme scheme and meter from a poem that the kids and I read yesterday: “The Man He Killed,” by Thomas Hardy.)