The Long Walk

I can no longer keep up, your steps far outpace mine. My gait is now barely a notch up from a shuffle. My feet ache. I watch you bound off into the distance, powering yourself towards some set goal that clicks the kilometers over until your mark is reached and you come back. My distance is meager, measured within the circumference drawn around a seat, a vantage point warranting a stop to take in the view. I sit and survey the places I've been and imagine places where I would like to go but now, never will. My thoughts float the river and ride the tides going out and then coming in. We stroll back, you slowing your stride to stay in lock with mine, the distances we each walk getting further and further apart, yet after all this time, we still arrive home together, as we did at the start.