Elegy: What The Road Taught Us Poem by ashok jadhav

We gather where the journey thinned our voice,
where footsteps faded into patient dust,
to mourn the selves we were before we learned
how much it costs to hope, to wait, to trust.
Here lie the hurried dreams we once believed
would bloom on schedule, bright and unafraid.
Time touched them gently, then took them away,
leaving the ache of promises delayed.
Loss stood beside us like a silent guide,
teaching by absence what presence could not.
It showed us how to carry empty hands
and still move forward, faithful, though forgot.
Patience was carved from hours we endured,
from nights that asked for strength without relief.
We did not choose its lessons—but they stayed,
slowly shaping courage out of grief.
Now we lament, yet honor what remains:
the quieter dreams that learned how to survive,
the deeper hearts made humble by their wounds,
the wisdom earned by simply staying alive.
O road that took so much, yet left us this—
a knowing sorrow, tender, grave, and true:
that through our losses and our waiting years,
we learned what dreams, and life, are truly worth