Fog is a ****** to fight,
You cannot punch it
Or choke it or
Throw it to the floor,
It's just there,
Damp,
Clammy and utterly inviolate

Like the inner workings of another's soul,
We can reach out but never grasp
Another's soul to our chest,
We can soar across
The wastes of space
Yet never quite reach them,

No matter how we try another's soul
Is theirs and once broken,
Perhaps no amount of love nor care can fill
The void created and
Never when that void is full
Of vinegar spite and
Ire

The trouble with ends is not ends
As such as ends always come,
Sooner or later the good or the bad
I have in my life will absolutely,
Like my life here,
End,

No - what hurts is not the ending
But those realisations one has beforehand,
That something was a mistake,
Or that what I thought I knew
I just
Don't,

When you know someone
Truly appreciates you,
Gets who you are
Warts and all then find they dont,
And worse than that - they
Won't.

All around me runners,
Running from or running to,
Running aimless
Or just plain running scared,

I'm not a runner,
I'm not built to run,
I'm built to stand and fight,
To fight and not to yield,

But some things cannot
Be fought
Some things cannot be won,
Death cannot be bartered,

Death cannot be bought,
But death can be resisted,
For me and for those I know
Death need not be final,

Need not be a final blow,
So runners pause - walk awhile,
Consider the cause of your speed,
Walk a while

Ask what do you really need?
I'm standing now and defending,
The scared and frightened and lame,
I'm helping and leading and healing

That terror which has no name
So stand with me
Or run on by,
I'm standing here still fighting,

I'm not being meek
And I'm not being mild,
I'm ****** if I'll run away waiting,
Just passively waiting to die!

I wonder if this might be
The last,
Indeed most certainly it has been the best,
The greatest leg up,
The final boost to better
That I perform,

So much history overcome,
So much pain,
Such loss and sadness,
Such tragedy incarnate
Across so many years
It scarcely may be borne

By my shoulder,
Nor mopped by my soul's
Sponge no matter the trying,
Yet slowly now we see
The change,
That change sought so long,

And even as that change rises,
Even as hope and happiness
Reach self sustainment,
I fail in equal measure,
Slowly and inexorably
Fading away,

No longer blazing,
But burning,
Sputtering,
Failing,
An ember,
Gone.