Tryst with Destiny

The Twinges of Regret, and the pangs of Old Age.

A lone male, quivering with longing, sits on a bench, the bench that is rusted with scars of memories, and has always been there for him. He still remembered when the bench was first painted, when it was new like him, and when there wasn’t a worry in the World. The periodic sound of the gurgling water, the copper rays of the setting Sun, and the sweet fragrance of freshly mown grass filled to the brim his mind with sweet memories. He sighed, for he was also filled with regret, all the unachievable dreams of his childhood and the uncertain nature of life. He longed to go back, and be carefree. He longed to be freed from the shackles that plagued his mind with constant eruption of twinges of regret. Getting up with effort, he walked in the sunset till he reached the fork and as he made the most important decision of his life, the words of Robert Frost brushed through his mind.

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;

His mind told him to take one path, and his body the other. Flitting his eyes before the fork, he stepped forward:

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,

His foot moved towards the right and his eyes to the left:

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.

The chirping birds urged him to go left, the water bent to move leftwards, and the grass tilted leftwards.

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.

Turning right, he boldly moved towards the open arms of death, smiling slightly, as he chose the road less travelled, and that will make all the difference in the World.