I dream of running: barefoot racing through midnight, scenery smearing past. Everywhere, everywhen, you’re with me- pacing me, baiting me, our laughter a chill down drowsing spines, unaware of what’s in their midst. Chewing through mile after mile, aeon after aeon, we tear the fabric of the world with our brazen animal souls.

I dream of leaping: a heart-stopping freefall, our lightspeed challenge ending in a split second of hang time, propelled forward by the maddening inability to ever slow down, ever stop. Breathless for a single moment before the wind rushes at us like lovers, like prizefighters, yanking the joyous, ululating shout of our swelling hearts from our open throats.

I dream of knowing we are falling, screaming in exultation; We are falling but we know what heroes do. We dive.

I dream of crashing. A thousand year drop, punctuated by our crash through the glass ceiling they felt so safe under. We bring noise and laughter and blood because we are not unscathed. We have landed in a pile of shards and breathless smiles, sweating and exhilarated because we are ALIVE, and this is enough. We are not meant for life lived behind walls, so again we dive, breaking this cage open to the outside.

Without looking back I feel curious, brave eyes measuring our path as we walk slung over one another, joking and loving until we have caught our breath.

And then we run.