No magic spell

Can give us flight

Simple and endless steps

Move us forward

There was a dream

Nearly a metaphor

That drove us into desolation

A God within

Whispering possibilities

Into our listening hearts

It is not the body

That wins the race

Nor the mind solely

But a spiritual revelation

That draws us forward

Ever faster, towards the finish

In the land where the earth

Bakes in the predawn hours

The sun sits as a harsh judge

Impartial to the suffering below

We relish those hours

We chase the punishment

Screaming into the nothingness:

“I am here”

We follow the steps of the dance

With death as our partner

Celebrating life

By risking all

For those hours on the road

The clock spinning the full 24

Before we take that breath

That stillness we long for

We do not rest

Until we have shouted down

Our greatest opponent

And tamed it into submission

Until it rises again

Nurturing the doubt

That speaks in a small voice;

“I’m not strong enough”

We forget

That we carry the blood of all who have gone ahead

And the forces of the elements

Within our minds

We are power unfettered

Running free across the desert floor

Finding the sharpest edges

Of impossibility

And beating it

With our determination ~ Caroline A. Slee