Dharma (A poem about running)

A languid breeze, sunny skies,
a body wracked with pain.
The miles trudging slowly by
and they all look the same.

I sought a name that I could blame
for all this misery
but found to my bewildered shame
that person’s name was “me.”

I dug this hole for reasons known
less so to me than God
the songbirds sing in my ears ring
a message I forgot.

Fate or chance, it matters not
for the one task left to me
to learn the difference, while I’m alive
between pain and suffering.