from the beginning...

you circled the room
and began your competition.
a fight against time--
chasing a dream
an impossibility.

i breathed for you
when you wouldn't breathe for yourself
even before i knew...
before i heard your heart whisper
of yearning

your path enticed:
turned
twisting
tainted minds--
irrevocably
inconsistently
insatiably.

but you kept running
so that i thought i might
believe

and i did

...to the end