The Long Way

My heavy heart takes the long way round to work

In no great hurry to get there

I walk slowly and in measured steps

I know too keenly I am so alone

By all the students who look and stare at me

I wander from the entrance of the hotel

Round the corner of the parking lot

Up hill beneath the tall sycamore trees

Past the infirmary and old brick walls

Down the long flight of steps

Beneath the grove of thin red cedars

At the bottom I turn right and work my way round

Down another flight, and then into the old class-rooms

All the other ways are shorter and more direct

But I like this route better

The other ones are crowded and busy

With people in the hubbub in a hurry

I always take the long way, when I'm in no hurry to get to somewhere

I do not especially want to be