I am Running

I am running.
Am I being chased? I cannot tell.
But I am running.
I turn down the road, and see a wall before me.
I still run.
When I come to the wall, I stop.
I turn.
And no one is coming towards me.
I run out.
I turn into the setting sun,
I don't mind the blinding light.
I turn my head
and I see the stars chasing me.
They are bewildering.
I keep on running, I run for many miles.
Then I stop.
I hear no footsteps behind me
but I run.
I begin to see my breath,
and snow falls.
Behind me, the lights of the North hunt me.
Hunt my soul.

Maybe they'll catch me, maybe they won't.
Someday I'll tire
to the point that I stop entirely.
They'll hunt me
from end to end, horizon to horizon
but never catch me.
I shall elude and evade, sneak and slide.
They'll see me
from time to time, I know, perhaps they'll
grab me
from time to time, but not for long.
Try they shall,
but I'll keep running. Keep on running.

They hunted me.
They pursued me to the ends of the earth.
Never stopped.
But neither did I, neither did I.
Soon I knew.
I was never followed.
So I stopped.
I sat down, and slept. . .and slept. . .and slept.
I had a dream.
A dream of beaches and campfires,
barbecue,
love and desire, lust and passion.
I dreamed
of a boat with empty sails
and hollow rudders.
Of fountainous eyes and building rubble.
This I dreamed.

But soon I awoke, and looked about.
It was different.
The mountains were moved, the Moon was smaller.
The Sun was bigger.
The stars were brighter, Andromeda loomed over me.
The ice was moss.
But I was not changed, clothes, hair, mind--all the same.
I arose. And ran.
I ran for a time unknown, days.
I didn't stop.
I didn't look back this time either.
But this I heard:
Nothing.
No feet from behind, no screeching from above.
Yet I ran.
At last I was beat down.
I stumbled on.
Soon, though, I could not stumble.
So I crawled.
The stars wheeled over head, the mountain-rocks loomed above.
When I could not crawl, I prepared.
I curled up.
Like an unborn child, in the placental paradise.
I was calm.

As I heard the footsteps, I did not tremble.
But smiled I didn't.
As they sat around me, I sat up.
And so they gazed.
I looked up, at the grand Milky Way.
Gazed at the zodiacal light.
Gazed at the stars so innumerable that we cannot count them.
Spoke they did.
To me, it was said they were looking for you.
I knew not your location.
If only I knew. . .if only I knew. If only. . .
Little did I know that you were long gone, gone like the histories.
They sensed no lie, and so they parted.
I arose, and gazed around.
The stars were twinkling, the moss was now red clay.
A cool desert.
I looked East, to the rising Sun, and turned into it.
And I ran.