"The Runner"

"The Runner"
By: Brendan Cadman


Chained and tethered to the post,
of his temptations and desires.
Pulling on the shackles holding him down,
with a relentless effort to break free,
and loosen the grip of his tormentor's hold.
Mind full of resolve with feet firmly planted,
he grabbed hold onto the fetters of iron,
determined to finally take back control. 

So he ran.

Off quicker than a bolt of lighting,
with the power of a runaway train.
He sprinted with everything he could give,
to tear that cuff right out of its socket.
At first effort the chain would not budge,
sending him face first to the ground in failure. 
But after a millennia stuck in one place,
he rose defiantly to his feet and brushed of the dirt,
unwavering in his mission. 

So he ran.

The splintering shatter of the wooden post,
followed by cracking of the unhinged chain. 
Set free from his past and born anew,
suddenly the world around him he had called home,
his entire life had mutated and contorted,
into something completely different entirely.
Unbound to the finality of what had been,
the horizon in front of him bore everything that could be.
With the hounds of his past nipping at his heels,
motivated by the fear of relapsing and falling back into the abyss.
he relied on what he had come to know.

So he ran.

On his journey to where the sun met the sea,
what he discovered became who he was,
and in time he had learned to scurry out of reach of it all.
The lurking shadow of death, 
hanging over us like grey storm clouds in the sky. 
The cold touch of heartbreak,
its freezing presence like ice on bare skin.
The disillusion of encompassing reality, 
dazed and staggered by the sobering scent of dreams deferred.
Cloaked in armor thick as granite and steel,
to protect himself from life's bristly graze. 

So he ran.

He constructed a barricade around him,
too tall and too strong for anyone to break through. 
Until one day one came along,
determined to chip away and tear down that wall. 
Grappling with those defenses as she did,
eventually the bloody knuckles of her love,
became to bruised to continue the fight.
Though she had gone her love never left,
but she could no longer live on the outside looking in.
So she moved on to the horizon without him,
but always remained hopeful he would meet her there in the end.  
It wasn't until the icy realization of what he lost,
could he see what that armor had become.
He worked so hard to break free from his chains,
only to fasten them tighter around his heart than it had ever been. 
Finally accepting of the risk of unconditional trust, 
he took aim at her and that horizon and did what he knew best. 

So he ran.