Crossroads

I started this poem before I discovered the joys of "Range Rhyming." As a matter of fact, the first draft was going to be a blues song. The chorus is all that's left of that. But I liked the idea of coming to a place in your life where you have to make a decision and I like the play on words at the end.

Crossroads

He was ridin alone on his Strawberry roan
jest a-lookin for what he had lost.
Not noticing where he had gone on that mare
till she stopped, where two roads were crossed.
She made no decision, cause the choice, it was his
and he couldn’t tell which way to go.
So, he looked to the sky, with a tear in his eye
then got down off that pony real slow.
He’s at the crossroads.
They say you live and learn
but, he’s at the crossroads
and can’t tell where to turn.
He dropped to his knees and asked the Lord, please
“Show me, which is the proper direction.
I get so confused knowing which road to choose.
I need a Divine course correction.”
He said, “I try to be good, do the things that I should
but it just seems I’m getting depressed.
I woke up today and thought God’s moved away
without leaving me His new address.”
He’s at the crossroads,
and feelin’ mighty low
Cause, at the crossroads,
you’re not sure where to go
Then this hand bowed his head and through tears, to God said
“Show me how I can make a new start”.
And right there in the road he un-shouldered the load,
and the cloud that had covered his heart.
And his story goes on, that before very long
he felt peace like he never had known.
His face had a smile and in a short while
he got back on that Strawberry roan.
Now, his message is clear, when you’re smothered by fear
and you feel like your whole world is lost,
God is waiting with love to send help from above,
if, at the crossroads, you look to the cross.
Jeff Hildebrandt Copyright 1999