Better Than Mine

He held the stool far Aback some dark bar And coddled quietly His tumbler filled with gin He motioned my way And turning sideways He told me son, now listen in I've seen it roll by More times than most'd try It never seems to fail Or alter in its course You're at the doorstep You haven't slipped yet You could be golden evermore He told me always take some time just wonder About some foreign land or days of old And admit it to yourself if you should blunder And always try to take the higher road His eyes grew wide now He drank his gin down And said he'd had to learn this All the hardest way Beware of cardinal sin Take that which you put in And savor each and every day He told me always take some time just to wonder And always come to question what you're told And to love without condition those who wander For it's they who'll come to pave that higher road