We don’t always choose the path.
The path we must take.
Those we must forsake.
The path each of our steps have led us down.
We must, we must, we must take each step.
One foot in front of the other, the cliche must say.
We choose to be strong.
When strength is all we have.
When we have been burned to the ground.
When the door has been shown to us.
The strongest of us never show the scars.
The weaker of us lived the pain all the same.
Each cut goes to the bone.
Each singe of a fire flown too close to.
The lasting marks left on our own skin, our psyche, our ego, our id.
The healing takes an effort of the power of Zeus.
The lasting effects infringed, infused of joy and of pain.
The lasting effects,
Be it joy; Be it pain,
We all have to live through these moments all the same.
Whether the numbers grow, or they dwindle from love’s familiar siren song or refrain.
When all you hear are the beats of your heart or the ticks of the clock as they pass us by.
Onward to the next triumph or defeat.
We pray, we hope, we wish.
Those mistakes we do not repeat.
To live to the end.
A life remembered.
A love rekindled.
A dream reimagined.
In this moment, to be whole.
Complete.

Forward momentum is all we have when we no longer can retreat.