I've Given Up Running Poem by Mark Heathcote

I've given up running because Death is a friend
I'm still waiting to meet between each breath
Sure, at intervals with pliers, he can pull out my teeth.
But know that I'm still grinning anyway when I fall
Without the strength to stand up alone.
Death is a friend who'll knock and call when I'm old
And if I'm lucky, I'll be sleeping at that time.
It'll be like falling off a floating log balancing
And entering another submergible world
Without a hello or goodbye, remembering
All I knew, plus one more delusional dream
Entering another without a second glance
Like a watercolour, I'll dry and set it all again
I'll amalgamate the future and the past
And darling, then I'll awaken and kiss you
I'll awaken and kiss you once again
and ask you to take me home and guide me upstairs.
To your eternal suffused morning glow
A horizon that always seems so far away.
But not as far away as a place called Tomorrow
that emits no sound or freedom from the present
Ten times more current.
Even when without delusion, I close my eyes or sleep.