Choices

After the moment of truth, he turned away
from the riverside community.

Out there the wilderness waited,
took his voice: insisted that he search
to redeem it. His choice.

Through fevered days and freezing nights
beguiling stones chattered of bread.
He set his teeth - resisted,
judged the pinnacle of memory
no more than a mirage.

As the vast expanse of desert
flickered before his eyes, he turned away,
knew that his music, his voice,
would take him to eternity.