WHICH EPITOME

In as much as 

you will feel compelled 

to continue 

to run up that hill 

at the end of 

your dreams,

as life within you

and without you 

will spar

and the story
you are trying to tell
will careen—

that's the extent 

to which 

you will lose just about

everything 

you have received 

thus far.

But the one thing

you must try to keep 

is your thanks

that whatever 

remains

after the loses

must be the only stuff 

made to endure:

a soul 

which does not care 

in praise of which epitome 

it sings—

an essence which is made 

of the meat 

of what change is.