On the Run

Today, I awoke from a dream It was a revelation Almost Patmosian, whatever that means But that's evidently another story It began with some standard bullshit fight with evil In this case, an apparently all-powerful hooded and cloaked figure We fled Yes, we I was not alone But there's no escape You're on the tee, but there's nowhere to tee the ball up You're trying to pack, but the chaos is too great You can't remember where you parked the car The birds come over, but the gun falls apart The train is late, or it doesn't stop Your hands are too big, the world is too small You don't mean to plunge the knife under the waiter's ribs But somehow you do You push on the footbrake as hard as you can But the car keeps rolling slowly forwards onto the track Or backwards over the cliff Well, it wasn't one of those It was the final showdown The final confrontation between good and evil He caught up the wraith He was strong, too strong to defeat in hand-to-hand We tried everything It all boiled down and expanded out and up Into a sort of Pilot wings video game over a circus site Guy Laliberté, gone mad Canvas and people and towering smoke arches And juggling capsules and catching knives And teamwork and comrades And it was complicated and exhausting But we won the day We stood, exhausted but triumphant Smiling at one another Clasping forearms and hugging Like bad Shakespearean actors But then we looked up and around They were gathering anew above us Darkening the sky Hordes and hordes Too many to count Poised to attack Overwhelming odds Against we happy few We band of brothers We were prepared to die Almost relieved to have given our all When just out of sight, to my right Just beyond the periphery of my vision Like a raging bonfire in a high wind, someone spoke A voice, like Atticus Finch Begone! The fire forward oblique voice ordained It brooked no rebuttal The hordes dissolved And all around the circus tents Open saloon cars full of bad guys Milled around to make their escape Skidding in the mud But there was nowhere to run It was over