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