A Run Through Tired Woods

Cool air kills another humid Virginia summer

My running shoes find new life

Though I run occasionally

through the sweltering heat

There is nothing to compare to a forest

Ablaze

 

She calls me from the harsh asphalt my feet pound to reach her soft her paths

Paths littered with her fiery tears

She is burdened and her leaves fall

In preparation for sleep

 

‘Another lonely cold winter,’ she explains

‘Bikers lose their helmets and runners their shoes’

 

Everyday is another closer

Each bringing indiscernible change

A change of shade

Or a shade of change?

 

She is exhausted

providing so much since spring

I gave my apologies for

A generation so narcotized

I explained to her

‘They believe that in their intoxication

They are peeking into heaven’s windows

The truth is they are trapped in some purgatorial existence

Neither granted access to the most high

Nor lent ability to appreciate a single basal leaf

in the throes of autumn’

 

I went on

 

‘and don’t concern yourself with months or years

For there has been but one to age so beautifully as you

My dearest Michelle

The wife he carved out for me

 

As I bid her farewell

Another golden tear fell

But I left her with this assurance

 

‘Though your company may dwindle

In the months to come and

Your bare limbs will no longer

Hold their brilliance

It will be my feet

That pound these paths

Whether through your fiery distress

When we may share our burdens of the future

Or amongst the terrible winds of winter

When through puffs of breath I will watch you sleep