Run like the tomatoes and ‘ketchup’
Run like the neighborhood kids playing freeze-tag,
like the red lips of lemonade-drinking, gossiping women
Run like the superheroes saving damsels in vine-climbing sky-towers
Run like the drawbridge will stay open
for you
just a crack,
just enough
to let the shard of luminosity be your direction
Run softly
Run like the bank when all the money is gone

Run like the gold really does exist in California,
and the Fountain of Youth is just another mile farther
Run like the people with new years resolutions
l o n g overdue
Run like the young girl, so empty inside
Run like the boy who is trying to hide,
like the tormented teen, away from home because
no one
will
listen
Run softly
Run like the blood to a girl’s cheeks when she blushes
like the fingers through her hair
Run like the lovers through nighttime streets of rain,
like the time is never too late to
speak
now...
or forever hold your peace
Run like the slave, away from the master
like the deer from the hunter
Run like the victims, away from the fire
Run like the battles have just been won,
in your homes, in far-off countries
Run like the children to coming-home fathers
Run like the car that’s pulling out of your driveway
couldn’t possibly be
carrying your heart
away with it
Run softly
Run like the tears down a sick, shattered soul
Run like the cancer won’t spread to your lungs,
like memories won’t escape your grasp
Run like the beach-steppers leaving their footprints in the sand
Run like the early-morning risers who get up an extra hour
just to glimpse the sun
to absorb, for once,
the

silence.

Run like the answers you treasure can change someone’s fate in
life
or
death
Run like the world will end tomorrow and you can’t beg God
for another day
for another hour
for another minute

Run like the distance of the nails, east to west.