Where I Once Went On

I have been walking this way, in the snow,
for a decade now. As I reach the top of
a slope my heart races from the effort.
Would I have been this winded ten years ago?

I know the fork; to the left, a climb still higher,
to the right, a slow descent, but one from
which I’ll have to trudge back up again.
I listen to the beat within, audible in the wood’s