For those running running,

forget holding onto your hat-

that which has you trying to flee,

with its tangles and barbs and gashes and claws,

can outrun you

and knows every shortcut

to come out ahead

again

and again and again..

Face what you plead with silently

to go away

Return return

Hold onto your heart instead.

That intricate webbing of blood coursing its way

through all of you,

into toes, and eyelids, and knees.

Your heart, you,

the one constant partner-

wrap tender fingers around the unwanted.

For those working through terror,

For those tending to their rage,

For those who turn, who return-

Your life is yours.