The Closest I've Ever Come

To knowing a painful truth.
I feel as much as it hurts, it's necessary to know.

The closest I've ever come,
To losing my place,
Giving up,
Quitting the race.

Almost allowing myself to sit and watch,
Not participate,
Just guide those who continue to run.

One by one, they had come in groups,
Dwindled down to threes,
Some twos,
But gradually,
Slowly,
I notice, they all seem to go it alone.

Down these many roads, down the same road,
One by one, One at a time, One.

The closest I've ever come,
To seeing the truth stare me down,
Beat me down,
Yell me down,
Talk me down,

I see that not taking part,
Is slowing me down.
Listening to the pain in the truth and not the freedom in it,
Is shoving me further away and further down.

So I'll get up, every time,
And keep running, sometimes fast, other times slow,
Other times I may choose to walk
And even when I succumb to the pain in the truth,
I shall remember the freedom the truth brings.

And though I must go it alone,
Just like all the runners,
Lonely at times,
I'll run with the truth and know
That is the closest I've ever come
To letting the pain in a truth,
Cut me down.