Yellow Mama E zine

RUNNER

 

by Michael Keshigian

 

I run the paths,

a wild man of animal soul and instinct

in complicity with nature

to unsheathe elements

buried by industrialization

and the corporate ideology

which spreads from walled streets

on networks of asphalt

into the four corners of my brain,

asphyxiating primal freedom.

But the forest trails quell my angst

and long stares into cubic blue

release-needed endorphins

which loosen the knotted tie

and within minutes

a panther escapes,

legs extended, muscles taut

to race on ground

flat from creatures

that prowl an evening prey.

And though my windbreaker

and reflective heels

camouflage little

from a civilization close at hand,

the daily insanity

provides nourishment for my unleashed psyche

and its abbreviated emancipation.

 

 

       Michael Keshigian is the author of 14 poetry collections, recently having been published in Studio One, Smoky Quartz, Panoply, among others. Nominated seven times for the Pushcart Prize and three times for Best of the Net, his latest books (Dark Edges, Into the Light, and What to Do with Intangibles) are available on Amazon.

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           Joseph Richkus is an enthusiastic illustrator, photographer, writer, and reader. He has been an essential oil perfumer for more than 20 years, and has worked as a history teacher, chemist, security guard, and circus canvasman. He bemoans the limits of time and regrets that he is not 10 people, one of whom would happily devote every waking hour to reading the Sunday New York Times.