This Path Poem by Dan Medina

Oh Places. Oh these journeys walked by life.
So common- yet so individual that those who traverse these paths feel
so alone, so distant, so isolated, and aloof.
Yet, in isolation- there is a connection.
A connection conceived through distress,
born by faces who stare at the depths of their own despair.

And, in this bond, there is unknown solidarity
joined by one purpose, one bond, one brokenness
between those with minds where thoughts race,
where the ominous lingering devours souls,
where outward beauty hides the battlefield within,
and a smile shields the war with whom it resides.

But each path to its observer seems so unique.
When, in reality, how different are they?
In this path of life, it is this longing to laugh, to live, to love
which bears down so heavily because it is so innate, yet so hard to obtain.

But in these moments of struggle,
it is to not seek the path in which one has gone,
but to seek the path in which one will go.
To join as one force, one brokenness -tied by thin, dim threads
to seek, to forgive, to hope, to walk-this path.