Running Wild (by C Rees)

Running towards the pulse, we run.
Each breath defies the hum drum:
Inhale: The essence of everything
Exhale: This stroke of yang and yin.

Inhale: Transparent carbon cycle
Exhale: Releasing molten air 
Recycling silent landscapes, 
Held forever deep within.

Contours spur a rigid grimace, 
Punched and pulled by hills 
Which spills breath needle sharp 
Cutting through the wind.

Arms as ballast, right the lean
Feet compute all ruts and rivets:  
Lift us over gnarly brows,
Soggy streams and unseen divots,
Which, while gnashing ankles, 
Bend and waymark all the effort spent.

Torsioned trees point a leeside way.
Inhale: the saline smell of estuary.
Exhale: wild salmon swimming free.
On feet of clay we make the day.

Inhale: Intercepted cold air from the north
Exhale: Spew it out with southern force.
Legs chaffing and chucking us headlong 
To some new space beyond the throng.

Feet plundering brooks’ detritus 
Traverse the stagnant pools.
Revealing replicas in rhyme.
Which leaves behind all sense of time.
Without pause for poise,
We head towards the cause.

Thoughts dance in asymmetry
Scattered by winds beyond the lee:
Unmasking latent fears
And anxieties once held dear
They settle and become quite clear:
Our phoenix moment now is here.

Of our senses: we are made:
Wrapped and glistening, 
In defiant runner’s form. 
On a ridge which stretches out before
Beyond the edges of the shore
A re entrant beckons us back.
Inhale: Exhale.