Pain

Pain is your only incentive
to keep broken bones straight,
to watch them heal while walls
invite you to stand atop and
taste the gold of undissolved suns,
nevermind the copse of corpses
at its unbroken unconquered base;
You will bite your wrist when
you hop for copper vessels --
food will cost agony and
you will know economy of breath,
husband the coiling ambition
and remember each mistake
in your flesh -- to err is inhumane;
You will reach dark cities
and captain naïve feet
to stowaway crannies beyond bends
where they may see honey in old skies
on stone floors of a mountain;
You will touch your leg,
remember the price of knowing
the paths you must not tread
and smile at the walls behind you.

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