Tag!

And here's the adrenaline
pumping through my veins
with a temporary spike to
better urge my sore and tired
muscles past their breaking point
and encourage my heart to
work double time, just to keep up
with the superhuman speed at which
everything seems to pass by
in a blur of color and brightness,
shiny and dull, dull as the sky filled
with gloomy storm clouds that do not
break, but build up with darkness
and tension until it's all too much
and all of it comes bursting out
in small pellets of clear blue and
shining grey streaks pelting everything
within reach, soaking it all in a heartbeat.

And here are the butterflies
flitting around in my stomach,
twisting my nerves in an awful sort of way,
a way that makes me want to cry and laugh
and shout all at the same time,
a way that almost doubles me over for lack
of coherent thought except for the impulsing
signals sent to my brain faster than lightning
or the speed of light across the galaxy
radiating from the cold, blazing stars
in the firmament scattered in a velvet case,
swallowed whole by those empty voids
with no thought or emotion or cares
for thinking, feeling beings that still hope for
something better, something bigger,
something brighter, something at least halfway
decent for survival on another rocky
sphere hurtling around its lifesource,
a star that burns far brighter than any of
those pathetic tiny specs in the far, far distance
with no meaning or memory attached.

And here are the stumblings,
the natural consequences of such
exertions so early on in the game-
and now the very breath in my lungs seems
to work against me, alongside the headwind,
so strong against my pumping arms and legs,
and all around me appears to be flying
ahead of me, and I, I am going backwards,
reeling away from my goal just around
the tall oak tree a hundred years old,
older than me or anyone I know,
older, even, than the city of which it is now
rightful property.

And here, I must stop,
rest,
breathe,
and run again,
slower,
too slow.

You're it!