I fell asleep 21 years ago
This dream I can’t comprehend
Demons that resemble figures I once knew surround me
Staring at me with hollow eyes and dark smiles
They guide me down paths and send me on my way
They’ve seen the future
They’ve watched me take shortcuts down back alleyways
They’ve seen me surrender and refuse to move
They’ve watched me suffer and endure abuse
I often sit up late
Watching the clock above spin completely around and wonder
What lays at the end of this path for me?
Why should I keep moving when I may be content with where I be?
I stand up and scream to the world “Why fucking me?”
I want to go back home. I want to be free!
Then the clock will tick and the ground will shake
The road ahead crumbles and scatters its debris
Slowly closing in on me
I begin to run for the end
Broken bloodied frozen
But with each step I am healed
A man in white stitches me back up
My family and friends push debris out of the way
Cheering me on telling me I need to go on
You are not done
My feet are weak and bruised
My shoes are torn and rugged
My legs whimper and quiver underneath me
I don’t surrender
With each weak step, I shake and I crumble
Someone runs over and picks me up
I take another step and the strength regains in my knees
But the next step I see over the valley and the long road stretched out in front of me
I surrender, I will never make it
The earth shakes, the faces around me tear
They step over me and continue on the path
I am alone
The earth shakes once more as the clock again ticks over my head
With the last strength remaining in me I lift myself up
I stand up tall and I run
I only make it a few steps and I fall to my face
Scraping my nose, blurring my vision,
But I get up again and I run some more
This time I make it further,
But I collapse again.
I am too weak to stand
I pant and moan,
Thrusting myself into the air
I take off
My legs don’t give
My vision returns
I hop over potholes and rocks
With each step more and more of my strength returns
I sprint past my family and they scream to me,
I don’t look back
Then I juke and dodge through my friends
They lock arms and trap me in, but I push past them
Knocking them to the ground
I run, I sprint
I stare down at the ground
As I pass by people that line the path
Pushing ones down that got in my way
Until finally once I felt like I had been running for ages I could see the end
I ran and I ran
The finish line was waiting for me there
I ran and I hurdled the tape
And then I waited for a moment for my legs to hit the ground
I hit with a thud and came crashing down into the grass
I lay on my back for a moment to breath
I began to sink
Slowly I sank lower and into the ground
I was out of breath
And the ground seemed to push my final breaths from my chest
I looked up for someone to save me
But there was no one there
Inch by inch I sank deeper into the ground