"Please consider an alternative," they said.
"Imagine the delights of Venus,
from tentative rising to satisfied sigh;
the shared warmth in solemn darkness".

"For others, such journeys are permissible," I said.
"But they do not reveal the bloodied peaks of the martial way.
These are my challenges to myself:
— to meet danger, and shake hands with it;
— to be there, where heroes struggle, and suffer, and struggle again;
— to make a difference."

Love is not true love,
without a willingness to sacrifice.