ALTER EGO

 

 

The man I was looms over me,

Like a father teaching his son to read.

     Like a shadow cast

     From the fateful past,

He haunts me with his deeds.

He wants me to carry on his seed.

 

This man is more than history--

His inmost core a mystery

     That he disowns.

     I reap what he has sown.

My passion flows from him;

And where he ends, I must begin.

 

But when his folly shall no more

Delude me, and the Other Shore

      At last I’ve reached,--

      And from that beach

The undulating waves

His errant footprints have erased,--

 

That man will be a Parable

Of human destiny, as well:

      A lesson learned,

      Not to be spurned

By those who seek to free

Mankind from self-made misery.