[Run]

I run, because that's all I can do.

The world moves under my feet like a powered-up treadmill.

My hands are incapable of clutching the rail. They are barely tethered there by fragile strings on the brink of snapping--wisps of threads that stretched out of sight, onto parents rarely met, a house on mortgage, texts of thanks and please forget this from people who kissed me on a one date night . . .

If I dare to slow down, to search for a moment to catch my breath, catch my thought . . .

I would bend. The cords would break and I would tumble.

For brief seconds of hope, I would scramble--desperately, frantically crawling on bruised palms and knees--but the world's merciless force would inevitably drags me under.

It would crush me.

So, I run.

-

I run, because if I stop, I would fall.

And I won't get back up again.