Poem: The Eventual End

The Eventual End

I took a video while I was running

In the woods. It’s best without sound

Because if you listen it’s almost—well,

Terrifying. It’s as if whoever

Is running to escape something—

As if their life must depend on it.

Swishing grass, heavy footfalls,

Frantic breathing. You just forget to

Look at the sun setting through all the trees

And the crimson of the sky, beautiful

In it’s closing of the day. 

                                          But, if you

Turn off the sound it’s a steady stream of

Sunset in the forest, a smooth walk to

A relaxing evening sunset now,

Calm and beautiful, the ending silent.

With sound, it’s a terrifying jaunt

Ending in such uncertainty, even

When you know it was a terrifying

Death, blood spattered through the trees, 

Even skies mimicking his bloody death.

I watch it and I forget that it was

Me on one of my favorite calm runs

Where the visual is all that matters.

Not the terrifying sounds of murder.

I didn’t take the video to be 

A horror story, symbolizing cruel death

At the end of day, but a view of what

I saw—I see—when I run in evening.

I can’t decide if it’s a lesson in

Perspective for the viewer or lesson

For me in how to approach living and

The eventual end.

September 2023

About This Poem

This poem is about a video I took while running. That part is self-explanatory, but what it made me think of when I watched it was both humorous and sobering. That's what I tried to capture here in the poem. Of course, when I run I don't think about the fact that I can hear my own heavy breathing or quickened heartbeat but in the video it was all there as the brush was pushed aside. It seemed terrifying, so I wanted to capture in a poem that contrast and then it made me think more about the whole life death thing. The photo is one I took in the same place I took the video, but I can't find the video. Probably deleted it.