Mr. Fornnarino's 9/21/12 Quiz

"Fable for When There's No Way Out " and "The Road Not Taken"

Fable for When There's No Way Out


Grown too big for his skin,
and it grown hard,
without a sea and atmosphere--
he's drunk it all up--
his strength's inside him now,
but there's no room to stretch.


He pecks at the top
but his beak's too soft;
though instinct and ambition shoves,
he can't get through.


Barely old enough to bleed
and already bruised!


In a case this tough
what's the use
if you break your head
instead of the lid?


Despair tempts him
to just go limp;
Maybe the cell's
already a tomb,
and the beginning end
in this round room.


Still, stupidly he pecks
and pecks, as if from under
his own skull--
yet makes no crack...
No crack until
he finally cracks,
and kicks and stomps.


What a thrill
and shock to feel
his little gaff poke
through the floor!
A way he hadn't known or meant.


Rage works when reason won't.
When locked up, bear down.

 

The Road Not Taken


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.