Running In The Pouring Rain

Running In The Pouring Rain
© Surazeus
2023 05 10

My soul swirls down inside the ancient book 
as I become the vapid thoughts of fools 
who stare at glowing television screens 
which hypnotize their minds with hollow tales 
of anti-heroes struggling to fit in 
for we are freaks in tragic comedies. 

My dream job in the third grade was and still is 
Archivist in Globe Library of books, 
maps, and paintings that record human tales 
detailing how we struggle against death 
just long enough to generate our children 
before we vanish from memory of Earth. 

Like brave Cambodian woman Bou Samnang, 
who keeps on running in the pouring rain 
to finish the five thousand meter race 
after all others are done, I breathe deep 
spirit of courage to continue on 
singing about strange beauty of our world. 

While sipping hot ginger mocha at dawn, 
and reading all the latest tragic news, 
I comprehend with critical insight 
how Ovid wrote the Metamorphoses 
based on sad stories of current events 
that memorialize victims of abuse. 

So Ares, the bitter, cold-hearted warrior, 
enraged that the beauty queen Aphrodite 
loves the craftsman Hephaestus more than him, 
invades homes, churches, schools, and shopping malls 
to shoot bullets of hate at innocence, 
killing millions of people with contempt. 

You will win admiring hearts of the world 
though you finish the race last in the rain 
if you keep on running against all odds 
to overcome despair with steady love 
by giving without asking in return 
for you will inherit treasure of truth. 

Wearing cloak handmade for a Gilead slave, 
Heather Hamilton, the blonde Sibyl menace, 
plucks ripe gold lemon from the Tree of Life, 
then strides with leaping wolf on misty heath 
to stab the haughty knight in shining armor 
with pen of satire and sly cocky grin. 

With Bou Samnang I run in pouring rain, 
inspired by strength of her enduring spirit, 
till millions of people around the world 
emerge from lethal prisons of our fears 
and run beside her to the Promised Land 
where she sits under the fruit tree and sings.