One

 

It takes some vice to leave your room

and walk the street’s impending doom.

The path that leads us to the sage,

the path that sends us to the cage

—they’re both the same. There’s only one.

One God, one life, one gem, one crumb,

one rage, one calm, one self, one lie;

no truth but truth’s slick alibi.

Forget the vice, forget the room,

forget the street and don’t presume

that there’s a path all clear and mowed.

There’s just the One all Prince and toad.