Blistered, bleeding feet
Lacerated, exasperated ankles
Taught, distraught calves
Screaming, pleading knees
Burning, leaden thighs
Mildly offended tendons
Moaning, groaning bones
Booming, endorphin-infused heart
Complaining, straining backbone
Spine finding limits
Splitting, spitting shoulders
Smouldering, tension-tethered head
Dehydrated, slightly deflated, aching brain
Though subdued
All will endure
If the mind finds the inclination
The will, and determination
To lead
The calming, steady hand of sobriety For days and weeks and months Holds and comforts Soothes and cools Dilutes the cruel Guiding the hours And steering the minutes Sheltering from showers And looming
The bronzen dale lay bathed Lit gold by the late-day sun Wonderfully, Gloriously swathed While the light warns of night-time to come The fading bracken paints Vivaciousness stained on the hill While l
His broken heart won’t mend But he’s laying down foundations To simply walk again With lowered expectations One foot before the next Is what he aims to do Its nowt that can’t be mended With a metric l