The Longest Table

9/5/08

It is a long table

The banquet table meant for all

Like the path less traveled

The pure distance cannot be measured

It stretches into infinity

Depending on your place and vision

As in the plain regions

The table stretches off for miles

Letting people see each other

See the differences and similarities

See the unbounded nature

Of human population

But as those in the mountains know

Sometimes hills obscure the view

Leaving infinity to the sky

And imagination to the earth

Showing only those who you really

know

Or at least imagine so

But as the classic author writes

You can only really know

Your own story

The chair that is placed for you

Cannot be occupied by me

For as you know the place before you

I know the place laid for me

For here, the cup is not a chalice

Nor is it white, black or gold

The plate is painted lovingly

And the bowl is chipped

But your plate might be stone

And your cup jade

The magnitude of choices

As the flowers of the meadow

Each one crafted marvelously

And each one completely different

Enhancing the table’s colors

As a masterpiece’s painting

The variants are told

Every color separate entities

Each one a part of the whole

Of the longest table

Like the path less traveled

No matter how far you can see

You can only see a part

Even a table can meander

Changing shape and depth

And height and substance

As that great river

Changed the shape of lands

Here is the longest table

Take a look for remembrance

For the fog will rise off the water

And obscure the vision

For vision is the idealist

And the hills will then hide

The length and breadth of

The longest table