Running with the Horses

(A Write-Back Poem to

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”)

By Manuel M. Avenido, Jr.

I dreamt one night I had winged feet

Running with the horses like the wind,

Into a long, winding road so steep;

Though I felt so light in every leap,

Beware I must to a nearby fiend!

And when we reached the end of the road,

I wondered if I still run or walk;

And I looked back, and the long way showed

So I took away all this heart’s load,

Then ran after the horses, and stalked.

Behold! I saw that I grew in age

Behind that rampage of dusty cloud;

Among hundreds of horses in rage,

Frenzied stampede I might be outstayed

But I kept running and I was proud!

The trail was rough but I worried not

For I let pass walking with footmen

In this old path of green grassland rot,

Trodden and traveled by them a lot,

Yet footsteps marked empty and ashen.