Running Like a Maniac (In Balance)

Balance is Important

Running Like a Maniac (From a Maniac)

My eyes are pulled back tight like a black lab running toward the 80-year-old neighbor.

Can’t save her

The dog was a maniac.

I am a maniac.

Running through the streets of my mind.

The street with the high walls on one side and a freeway on the other.

With streetlights that brighten the space underneath them while highlighting the darkness all around

-in contrast

Step into the spotlight. Aloneness on display.

Run

Run like a maniac so you won’t know if anyone is chasing you.

Running Like a Maniac (The Happy Version)

A towel tugs at my shoulders as I run like a maniac;

The sun heats hair and presses against eyelids.

Toes push through fire and sink to cooler sand.

Sometimes running like a maniac is in slow-motion.

Fall face first; a grateful surrender to deep-sunk feet.

The packed sand ahead is in sight;

Time to climb through the high-gravity zone

And run like a maniac across the cool solid ground; into the arms of the ocean.

Cassandra Robbers, 2018