To Have Done

12.20.21 / 1.5.25

You are not trying to do the thing
to have done the thing.

That may be the muscle of your action
but the bone and blood of it are
something else.

Why did you begin?
What do you win?
Where have you been
and where are you going
and what have you
to get there?

Sometimes a long journey wears us thin
and leaves us with less than the thread
on the end of a small silver pin
and our will is shot and our breath is short
and we reach an old fort and just want to drop.

Stop. Stop the thought.

Find the bone and blood
and the skin if you have to.
Find the next sign
and grin if you have to.
Reach for the breath
that has left you.
Look at who
you stand next to.

Take my hand and
hear with your ear.

Friend,
You are not walking this road just to get to its end.
You are not just doing the thing so it's done.