Maps

maybe there’s a map

a secret path to find

the road forks ahead

so many paths in kind

so often we end up

about where we began

the road leads where its led

despite all that we had planned

maybe there’s a map

wouldn’t it be nice?

a hidden book to read

a thing of mazes and mice

some hidden way to find

Lord knows we pay the price

Author's Note

One from the notebook on this dreary Thursday.

Reviews

[Lorry]

I wonder if when you wrote this one John, that you were thinking of flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. That had mazes and mice's in it and is still one of my favourite books evererer, despite its unwoke subject matter.
I don't recall there being a map as such, but those sy-in-tists could make you clever like a mouse, even if the duration of your klevurness was suspect!
Oops, should I have written spoiler alert there? Me bad! 😃

[John Sullivan]

We actually read this in school a million years ago. I will never forgive Keyes for killing that damn mouse. Way to traumatize a generation of schoolkids, there.

Poor Algernon ):

[Lorry]

I read it in the 2010's for the first time and then immediately recommended it to everyone, so im probably responsible for at least 2 or 3 more sales for his estate. But I agree, Algernon took no sh*t from anyone! 😃

[John Sullivan]

Alright, it's been so many years I had to Google it... does Algernon die from complications from the procedure? Like... is the inference that Charlie is going to die too? From brain stuff? WTF DANIEL KEYES.

[Lorry]

Yes. Its like the blade runner line about the star that shines the brightest kinda thing. But saying that, Charlie realises he will go back to being old Charlie and it affects him greatly. It ends with him back in the playground it started in.
I'd hate to see what the woke copy of that book would be. Most likely just a pamphlet about a mouse that got clever! 😃

[John Sullivan]

Way to quote a great movie, Lorry. And you've got me reflecting on Flowers for Algernon like all day. If that isn't the saddest damn book ever written. You're right, you probably couldn't get away with it today, but damn if that's not complicated in the States these days. As an urban American I have had friends of color over the years, LGBTQ friends too... and there's a lot of validity to their stories and arguments concerning the culture in America, how this country kinda works between the lines. Now, you could argue that whole scene got way to insular and self.... absorbed? for it's own good, but the general arguments... controversial take from the States these days but I'm not anti those ideas entirely. Of course, just typing this is gonna get me on a list, the way things are going out here, but anyways. Always lovely to hear from you, Lorry. Now you've got me thinking about Blade Runner too. Tears in the rain, and all that. What a great line.

[Lorry]

Dagnabbit. I think im gonna have a flowers for Algernon/ Bladerunner double feature Sunday! 😃

[John Sullivan]

A fine if not thoroughly depressing weekend for Lorry! May it be sunny and not snowy in your part of the world for your depressing weekend. I live in the Northeast of our United States and we had our great blizzard of '26 earlier this week. It's a hella lot of snow, Lorry.

[John Sullivan]

Maybe depressing is the wrong word. Both that book and that movie moved me greatly the first time I took in both. Heavy stuff.

[Lorry]

I saw it on the news and feel bad that so far (touch wood) we haven't had any snow at all.
Okay, the streets have became rivers a few times but the more biblical things get the more Scottish normality seems to become! 😃

[Neville]

I bet that notebook is worth a few bob .. I think and feel similarly quite a lot of the time these days .. .. Stay well & write on bro .. Neville 😎👍

[John Sullivan]

I rather hope so, it's my retirement fund :P

Will do, my friend, will do.

[Neville]

............... I just knew it .. 😎👍

[John Sullivan]

By my reckoning, at its current value... I'll be retiring for about five minutes and thirty-four seconds exactly, in total.

Golden years, they say.

:P

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I keep seeing the same road signs and landscape...maybe I need to use my GPS to get out of this rut.
Great poem, John. Love the metaphor.
j.

[John Sullivan]

Jacob! Lovely to hear from you. I'm just old enough to remember those big road atlases they used to sell at gas stations. And before cell phones. And the internet. Good God, we have not... improved conditions, have we? Anyways, cheers. Nice to hear from you.