I Have Walked Along Many Roads

	I have walked along many roads,

and opened paths through brush,

I have sailed over a hundred seas

and tied up on a hundred shores.

	Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve seen

excursions of sadness,

angry and melancholy

drunkards with black shadows,

	and academics in offstage clothes

who watch, say nothing, and think

they know, because they do not drink wine

in the ordinary bars.

	Evil men who walk around

polluting the earth. . .

	And everywhere I’ve been I’ve seen

men who dance and play,

when they can, and work

the few inches of ground they have.

	If they turn up somewhere,

they never ask where they are.

When they take trips, they ride

on the backs of old mules.

	They don’t know how to hurry,

not even on holidays.

They drink wine, if there is some,

if not, cool water.

	These men are the good ones,

who love, work, walk and dream.

And on a day no different from the rest

they lie down beneath the earth.