Strides

Cities lies as visions in the head,
promised paradises where gold is found,
where every wish can be fulfilled.

It all happens in the mind,
as images of places never visited,
each detail created by fantasy or assumption,
never based on truth or reality.

Still it is enough to inspire a walk
along a road that leads to a goal
and it can’t be reach
without sure and steady strides.

But the body speaks
instead of the heart
when walking on that journey,
though desire is never enough
to stay on the trip to the end.

You can’t rely upon ambition alone for success,
have to accept the price of sacrifice
regardless of the place headed.

There no distance strolled
that you can take without
a demand upon your time and stamina
and hope isn’t enough
to prevent any hardships
from leaving their marks.

Yet, sometimes it is harder to not move
since the agony of guilt
over doing nothing
can be worse than any suffering
over the pace and trials faced.