All around me runners,
Running from or running to,
Running aimless
Or just plain running scared,

I'm not a runner,
I'm not built to run,
I'm built to stand and fight,
To fight and not to yield,

But some things cannot
Be fought
Some things cannot be won,
Death cannot be bartered,

Death cannot be bought,
But death can be resisted,
For me and for those I know
Death need not be final,

Need not be a final blow,
So runners pause - walk awhile,
Consider the cause of your speed,
Walk a while

Ask what do you really need?
I'm standing now and defending,
The scared and frightened and lame,
I'm helping and leading and healing

That terror which has no name
So stand with me
Or run on by,
I'm standing here still fighting,

I'm not being meek
And I'm not being mild,
I'm ****** if I'll run away waiting,
Just passively waiting to die!

Two birds took flight at different times on pinions driven
By a shared need for height and clarity in the thinner clearer
Air above the chattering noise
Of lower altitudes,

Two birds, both feather clad yet more apart than chalk and cheese,
One a raptor with  keen and savage eye
And beak and claw,
The other softer, silver grey and dove,

Two creatures launched at different points in history,
Sharing a common physiology
Yet at odds in their interaction with the world
And opposite ends of the food chain,

Not once should their flights cross except but once,
Even would time dividing their flights permit,
And then would end in a flurry of blood
And broken feathers,

But against all that these things can happen and sometimes must And did and then
As perception grew in predator and prey,
Eyes widened in unexpected recognition
Of a kindred spirit,

Then immutable rules of living worlds are broken
And the norms of life themselves take flight for suddenly
Those rules don’t count for much
And what then remains

Is unknown

Do we fly?

Or do we crash to earth?

How far that bar
Could have been
Removed from safe endeavour
Had a hand wandered
Beneath a table,
Or a touch been left
To warm too long,

A fractional delay that says
This is no accident and yet
Not enough to be
Reacted to except
Somewhere deep
In that carnal zone
We fear and desire
So much
To free upon an
Innocent world,

That sense of safe and loyal
Moral status quo,
Quivers under stress
And tremors in the face
Of her carnal monster,
Who's teeth bare and snarl at the bars
Of polite and acceptable behaviour,

But yet that rigid
Smiling calm prevails
(Albeit by a tooth's skin
And the blessed lack of that final back snapping
Straw of temptation)
And as the heat,
That innocent heat from a
Boiling sun, builds
The words come that say
"Let's leave it here
Upon a high"

Another day's dawning
With attendant bird's chorus
Backdrop to my awakening,
A new sun's beaten gold orb
Hauls over the horizon hard edge
As my feet pad,
With the rest of me,
To ablution,
Shower,
My morning tea,

Over cereal my mind
Considers the day ahead,
The tasks ahead,
The people with whom
I'll interact,
The ones I'll try to help
To better things
And higher flight in life
And in that moment
I ponder my own mortality

Which at some point
Will come home to roost
Although I dont know
Quite when,
Nor where,
Nor how,
Back in my room
A familiar lump is strangely
Still beneath
The duvet
Oh!

That day mortality
Comes home to roost,
That day briefly
Regarded each morning,
That time for this flawed
And challenged man
To cross the bar,
Head West,
To buy the farm,
To turn home,
That day it seems

Was now

Today the clouds parted
Though none were in the sky
To soften the midday sun and its savage glare,
But these were clouds that hitherto
Softened and blurred conversations,
Stole the worth of words
Unsaid,

Today the filters were not there to
Real-time edit the stream of meaning
From my mouth into her ear,
Today those social mores and fears
Of insult,
Injury or worse were absent,
As questions truly bluntly asked were
Truly
Bluntly
Fully
Met

Love hurts, love scars
Love wounds and marks
Any heart
Not tough or strong enough
To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain
Love is like a cloud
Holds a lot of rain
Love hurts
Ooh, ooh, love hurts
I'm young, I know, but even so
I know a thing or two
I learned from you
I really learned a lot, really learned a lot
Love is like a flame
It burns you when it's hot
Love hurts
Ooh, ooh, love hurts
Some fools think of happiness
Blissfulness, togetherness
Some fools fool themselves, I guess
They're not foolin' me
I know it isn't true
I know it isn't true
Love is just a lie
Made to make you blue
Love hurts
Ooh, ooh, love hurts
Ooh, ooh, love hurts
I know it isn't true
I know it isn't true
Love is just a lie
Made to make you blue
Love hurts
Ooh, ooh, love hurts
Ooh, ooh, love hurts
Ooh, ooh...

Look in your heart and what do you see?
Look into your deepest darkest desire,
What is it your eyes perceive?
That which is watching your gaze,
That scary scary thing,
Is me

The lightning rods are all around me,
Above and below and beside and behind,
Even inside and through my very me and
Bursting out all over,

Because like all of us I have mine own,
Charged with all I am and
All that I desire,
All I crave and would achieve

Are described by arcing bolts
Of something like electricity,
Yet terrible and beautiful
In a way that volts alone just aren't,

But why then can I read the
Bolts of others so readily?
How is it I can reach and touch
And bend these other's

Essential sparks to better
And more profitable things?
To that my judgement feels is better,
Or is good?

Am I to be trusted with such a power
Such semi omnipotence with such
Attendant potential to harm
And maim?

Yet if not me then who?
For I do see and I am able to bend the
Struggles of another to better or for worse,
Seeing a better course I cannot help myself

But to reach out and change another's destiny,
But so far what harm have I done?
Have any truly suffered?
Has any harm been me?

None so far and this then do I share
I will continue bending lightning
The best I can and why?
Because I can

Because I dare

Because I care

"Why this dance?"
She asked of me
"When we both know the dance is more than
Feet and shoes"
"Why this ersatz cavorting
Around beasts with two backs
When what's at stake
Is a meeting of our souls?"

"Because it is all one"
I said,
"All one,
The beasts the highs and lows and rainbows,
The unicorn and the snog,
It's all you and it's all me,
We just choose which bits collide
And which of those we keep"

Well that was quick,
That was fast in fact,
The transition from
Nervous angler
Trying to land that
Gut felt truth that
Would not yield to
Rod nor line
But rather fought
And pulled and calmly won.