Herbivores ~~ anna hood ~~

He’s running again
the man on the TV.
I don’t pay him much mind
he’s been on before
when I’ve been busy
with my lunch
a magazine, the newspaper
but today as he’s running
there’s something …
and I watch.

He’s not fit, not in runner’s gear
splashy in bright neon
no expensive shoes.
He looks like somebody’s dad
a little fat, a little bald
and yet he’s running
as if he’s a deer

and out of the corner
of his herbivore eyes
he sees the lions

and he is running
as if he’s a lamb
again those herbivore eyes
see the wolves.

He’s running
as if the dark might
swallow him whole.

And I’m watching now
as he runs
runs runs
through junkyards of dead
cars and graveyards
past churches
and shops and schools
by train tracks huffing and puffing
his way past
shoppers or walkers, children
in strollers running and running
and I’m watching
him run run run.

Then the announcement:
‘Most sufferers of ALS lose
the use of their legs in two years.
What would you do?’

I’d run.