When You Run in the Dark

You cannot see ahead, only the circle of light from your torch.

Shapes loom suddenly and appear.

Briefly visible, obscured by steaming breath for a second

The silence is, uncanny.

Laboured lungs and pounding feet,

drowning any night sounds or distant traffic.

Should a person, or startled bird cross your path,

it is abrupt and a breaking of the continuity of travel that is jarring.

And they are gone as if they never were.

Like swimming in deep water,

what lies in the blackness is only hinted at.

What might be coming toward you,
might not be what is expected.

Time, the precious commodity that is life’s real currency.

Slows.

The immediate, is very immediate.

The frozen path ahead, only a few strides visible.

The dense, dark trees sternly towering over you.
Their stretching, reaching branches trying to clasp the twinkling stars,
before dawn hides them away.

What is coming, what lies ahead, what can be seen is only a step from the here and now.

And beyond that is unknown.

1st Dec 2017