Branching or choice poem: The reader determines the path by selecting words at each fork.
Two Roads from the Station
You step from the last train
with one name in your pocket.
Choose:
To search for the speaker, go to A.
To throw the name away, go to B.
A
The town is dark except for one house.
A lamp burns behind its upstairs glass.
Choose:
Knock at the door: continue to C.
Watch from the road: continue to D.
B
The paper turns once in the wind
and vanishes beneath the train.
Continue to E.
C
The door opens before you touch it.
“You came back,” someone says.
The name in your pocket
is your own.
D
At dawn, the lamp goes out.
No one leaves the house,
but your shadow walks toward it.
E
You leave the station empty-handed.
Years later, every train whistle
sounds like someone calling you home.
The poem divides into separate narrative paths. The reader does not merely replace individual words; the reader chooses which section to enter and which ending to reach.
Its defining feature is divergent routes. Some passages are read, while others remain unread during a particular journey.

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