How do you call upon courage
to lead your own life?
It doesn’t come in anticipation,
it doesn’t rear its head in planning.
It emerges from the fog,
in the hour of need,
when your life is on the line,
and the time has come to decide.
It gives a temporary glimpse,
a magnificent flash,
until it retreats back inside
under shells of compromises and broken promises
to come back once again
when you cannot do without it.