Choices make a man

Or so they claim

I can't help but wonder 

The exact location

Of the threshold

Or breaking point

When do the choices

Tip the scales

Dictate fate

Choices make a man

The concept is simple

The application not so

After all

Have I ever really

Truly, I'm saying

Made a choice

Totally independent

And on my own

Or have they

As they are

Been influenced

By upbringing

By surrounds

By law

By man

By machine

By nature

Choices make a man

So I can't help but wonder

What are others made of

Are they the vices

That they so readily

Choose

To fall back into

Day after day

Are they the victory

Fresh or stale

That was achieved

Perhaps alone

Or not

Are they the failure

Catastrophic or minute

That was caused

By their choice

By their hand

Choices make a man

Or at least that's the claim

That I run the vast 

Interworkings of my cerebral being

Over and over again

I can't help but wonder if 

The truth of it would set me free

Or if it would just reveal the shackles

Made by my own existence

Have I ever made

A choice

That was entirely my own

I think not

Therefore 

A better use of my 

Mental capacities

Would be to identify 

All the different hands that have

Played into the making of myself

Perhaps those hands 

Were benevolent

Perhaps not

Choices make a man

But are those choices

Intrinsic or extrinsic

When both of those

Are laid before me

My mind can't pick them out

Can't distinguish one from the other

Well

I'm stuck

My synapses all gummed up

It seems

Well

I 

Can't 

Quite 

Choose