Running

[happytrails]

frantically,
seizing upon any excuse;
he runs.
telling no one
if he is running
away from something,
or to it.

desperately,
telling lies.
he admits nothing.
his terror revealed
only to those who care
to look
into his stricken eyes.
and those who do,
quickly look away.

fearing
whatever it is
they see there.
afraid
that it might reflect
a personal
and, as yet,
unacknowledged horror
in their own lives

then,
they, too,
will feel
the in explicable
need to
RUN!!

[mnaz]

"... if he is running away from something or to it"

yes, telling no one, no one can tell. seems some of both at all times. seems everyone runs at some point..

oh, and your poem put a sly and the family stone song in my head for the first time in a long, long time... "running away, to get a-way, ha ha, he he, yer wearin' out your shoes"...

[joel]

his terror revealed
only to those who care
to look
into his stricken eyes.
and those who do,
quickly look away.

and isn't that why we run? hoping someone will seek us out and save us from always being ignored? maybe not always...but seems always for me.

[happytrails]

Thanks for reading and responding. Yes, Joel, I guess that is why we run.
Strange story about this poem; it was the result of a poetry challenge on another poetry sharing site. The challenge was to write a nonsense poem. This is what I wrote. Everyone said I had missed the point. That it was not supposed to make any sense. When I wrote it, it didn't make any sense to me. But the more I read it, the more I can see that I really did miss the mark on nonsense poetry. Needless to say, I didn't win first place.