justwrite 28 december

I knew that if I ran I’d get there faster but what the hurry was seemed rather unclear still steering forward I prepared for the cold emboldened by others and cheered by myself the music the clothing all wrapped up a capsule of warmth heading into the cool not the cold but the wet and the muddy but yet onward and the air not too sharp and the sun not too dark as is usually the case but often its face is obscured on these days those late December ways of pretending that it’s evening as early as the feeling strikes the clouds still being allowed to hold onto day and to wade into sunlight is a sweetbright chance so I took it and booked it none too fast but the goal is to last and mostly I did up through the buildings with building-up breaths and a start at saint Nicholas there on the corner up the sidewalk while the passby talk was little since the numbers out were few and it’s true I stopped before the corner but the mud sucked and slipped and rather than trip I stepped toward the road passing cars with steamed windows I tried not to peek in though some cheap date that’d be parked out far by the auto bazaar hey we all have our things and who am I to bring more than deep breaths to the walking stretches past these catches and a disinterested dog taking a left early to avoid the muddiest lane but erring again in a relative sense the tense too present to pass it quickly the running stalls and the shoes call out for mercy no rehearsing these steps just careful and watched by a bicycle queen leaning back to check my progress or lack while a dog feigns attack in a loud but safe sense just appeal in those wheels and he can’t help but squeal as I squish but the main road explodes in the certainty of solidity and the cars pass with honks but this part is stable until three dogs unable to stay sitting in their observer status pose throw stationary cares to the wind and decide on a chase erased briefly by passing cars and I once again wonder what I ought to do if such and such happens if the effort to pass without incident is denied and there’s nowhere to hide maybe a passing car to jump into or fastsprint quickgone breakinto and what if there’s a bite and how to know what’s right to do but on I go and true to my hopes they play slow pokes and mosey on elsewhere taking care to show displeasure I’ve interrupted their sweet leisure on the roadside patrol in the sofa-stretched stance but no chance for respite for more than a minute as the next guard is ready head low and eyes steady watching from the other side and so I plan a forward look and book it slightly with no glances rightly no challenge here friend just stay on your own end and so it passed and so did I through mud and mire and the slip when it found me and pulled me down was an angled curb a downward swerve and a bump and some scrapes in the now-standard places but the mud brushes off and the way back’s not rough though the bluff I’ve called on winter drifts backward as the shadows turn to cool and the buildings look toward dark