Desire Path

by Jenna K Funkhouser

“A desire path, also known as desire line in transportation planning and many other names, is an unplanned small trail formed by erosion caused by human or animal traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or the most easily navigated route between an origin and destination” - Wikipedia

Sometimes, it is just a question

of getting where we know

the path will lead, but slowly.

Think of Mary of Egypt, bounding

in a single hour from catastrophe

to praise; or the bold thief

who took the kingdom by

a question.

Some people circle, inch by inch,

up the winding mountain;

others hire the mule of mercy

and abandon themselves to its gait.

When you have an instinct for good,

someone once told me,

don’t hesitate

give in at once

let yourself be walked over

and over by all earnestly

in the direction of love.

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Jenna K Funkhouser is a Pacific Northwest based storyteller and poet. Her poetry has been published by The Ekphrastic Review, As It Ought To Be, Ekstasis, and Spiritus Journal, and is forthcoming at The Penwood Review, among others. Her second book of poetry, Bright Inhabited Lives, was published by Kelsay Books in June 2024.