Paper Path

The path of needles,
the path of pins --
Little Red Riding Hood
was supposed to choose between them.

Neither sounds very nice.

And indeed, she ended up
with the wolf, or
the woodcutter,

frightened out of her wits
either way.

And 200 years later
I stand in front
of this blinking, burbling machine
giving me a message
I don’t understand:

paper path.