<b>The Journey</b><br /><br />One day you finally knew<br />what you had to do, and began,<br />though the voices around you<br />kept shouting<br />their bad advice --<br />though the whole house<br />began to tremble<br />and you felt the old tug<br />at your ankles.<br />"Mend my life!"<br />each voice cried.<br />But you didn't stop.<br />You knew what you had to do,<br />though the wind pried<br />with its stiff fingers<br />at the very foundations,<br />though their melancholy<br />was terrible.<br />It was already late<br />enough, and a wild night,<br />and the road full of fallen<br />branches and stones.<br />But little by little,<br />as you left their voices behind,<br />the stars began to burn<br />through the sheets of clouds,<br />and there was a new voice<br />which you slowly<br />recognized as your own,<br />that kept you company<br />as you strode deeper and deeper<br />into the world,<br />determined to do<br />the only thing you could do --<br />determined to save<br />the only life you could save.