Image credit: blvdone

The road to despair is incremental
It is rarely a steep descent
Instead it follows pathways
Of bleak and blighted hope
Opportunities so close
Within grasp and then elusive
It builds an edifice so slowly
Too late you see yourself
Caged in something which you thought
Held only promise of escape

Each day begins as the last and all
Press on with rituals and requirements
A steady stream of people
Swarm streets with each as faceless as the next
This humdrum rhythm anesthetizes
An opiate of forgetfulness that helps
Eradicate the knowledge
The each day we just grow older, all the same

Who would bravely draw back the shroud
And stare this truth right to its face?
Even dreams and ambitions sorely won
Must eventually fall to others on their climb
And for those of us, the many
That never reach the heights
Comes only quicker knowledge
Of the fall that captures all

But incremental comes the wisdom
So soft and quiet we may ignore it
And for sanity we shy away
From knowledge which would surely shatter all
We herald stories of those who triumphed
Over odds immeasurable as though
This holds the pattern to a victory
Within our grasp
Until with weariness we look back, look back
And know.

(c) Helen Valentina 2015, All Rights Reserved