I Cannot Walk As I Once Did/Freely Painlessly Poem by Shalom Freedman

I cannot walk as I once did
Freely painlessly
Now discomfort means
Walking until the pain is overcome
It means forcing myself against the aching
It means no longer being able to forget the walking in the walking
It means needing to think about the walking as I walk
It is not as pleasurable as it was
Still in the effort
And in the moving
There is some more difficult pleasure still
I go on
And I go on moving
And they haven't beaten me yet
I am fighting as best I can for as long as I can
And I still am walking into the distance.