“Down in Dixie"

“Something about the location brought this poem to mind."

It wasn’t very long ago
That a strange turn took my life
Down  very different kinds of roads
From a world of strain and strife
From a world of mad distraction
To one much better well-behaved
After I got stuck in Dixie
Where the roads still are not paved.

I might be going nowhere
So much faster than I should
Pushing hard at Nature’s boundaries
Much further than others could
Or I might be doing great things
While the others sat amazed
But I got stuck down in Dixie
Where the roads still are not paved.

There’s a fast track I could be on
Where Life’s meaning might be found;
Down along the Devil’s Highway
Much too fast and Hell bent bound
But the turn, I missed it somewhere
Bad directions someone gave
So I’m stuck down here in  Dixie
Where the roads still are not paved.

Or I could be stuck watching life pass
Down a road I could not go
Or just try to make a U-turn
On a road I do not know
Or I could just watch the others
And at them I could just wave
Now that I’m stuck down  in Dixie
Where the roads still are not paved.

Now it does not matter to me
Or what road I travel down
There is no hurry any more
Just to reach the nearest town
All the burdens others carry
From their doom I have been saved
When Fate stuck me down in Dixie
Where the roads still are not paved.
  ©Adriaan