Running Dreams

In my dreams, I can run,
something I’ve always wanted to do
in real life, but never had the wind
or the the stamina for
(really, I’ve tried, and it’s not pretty).

But in my dreams I often find myself
jogging through the scenery
in a cadence that eats up distance
as effortlessly as the running of an avatar
but with a feeling of strength and
fluidity you can’t get watching
pixels dance along.

I dreamed that I ran up wide stairs
two at a time, no less.
Feeling my muscles compress and expand,
never thinking of my tired knees
or burning lungs, or feeling my whole frame
shake with each jolting impact.

I used to take stairs two at a time,
if not running, perhaps still with something
akin to a bound.

And I remember thinking once, watching
the rest of the world trudge up stairs,
will I ever come to that?

That’s one question answered, anyway.

Now I wonder how much further
I can run on until I run out of dreams.

Links/Sources:

  • Image: lifted from former Army Special Forces officer and author John Fenzel’s ([amazon_link id=”0982237901″ target=”_blank” ]The Lazarus Covenant[/amazon_link]) website, which I otherwise wouldn’t have found, but turns out to be very thoughtful.

Soup #14 Lucky White Bean and Chicken Chili

I’d been getting signals from Kaylen, one of the YearOfSoup testers, that it was time for another white bean soup, and maybe something with some kick to it as well. I’d really liked Barb Wilmer’s Awesome White Chili w Cumin and Clove when she resouprocated me with a sample, and thought I might actually follow a recipe from start to finish for once. I should have known following a recipe was beyond me, but what I came up with was quite decent on its own. I used a fresh jalapeno, but somewhere along the way decided that I wanted to use some of the preserved ones as well. The result is a bit hotter than some might like, though really, it’s still mild for chili. Continue reading

April Book Browse: Coffee, Magazines, New Books, and Zeitgiest

It’s the beginning of the month, so I was looking forward to my First Saturday Book Browse at the Potomac Yards Barnes and Noble. But first I finished[amazon_link id=”0316093556″ target=”_blank” ] Chasing the Moon[/amazon_link], mostly at the gym, but I polished off the last few pages in the parking lot outside the bookstore. Like all Lee Martinez stories, it was a good romp through much weirdness that give the main character a chance to find themselves. In this case, it’s a girl named Diana, who moves into an apartment full of eldritch horrors that glom onto her, though it winds up a pretty good deal out of it for everyone, except maybe the moon, which is as the title promises, being chased. Sort of like a grownup version of Pixar’s Monsters Inc., without the Inc. Continue reading

Chasing The Moon by A.Lee Martinez

[amazon_link id=”0316093556″ target=”_blank” ]Chasing the Moon[/amazon_link] – Sometimes an author sneaks up on you, which is what A. Lee Martinez did to me. First, I read Gil’s All Fright Diner about a lonely diner in the southwest that was a favorite stop for hungry zombies. It was funny, weird, and sure…a touching romance. Then I read Monster, in which a girl discovers she’s got powers and winds up with a demon for a boyfriend. But hasn’t that happened to everyone?

But I still hadn’t put Martinez’s name on the list of authors I watch. I read a lot of books and, frankly, keeping new authors straight isn’t that easy. So I was already on the second page of the second chapter of  Chasing the Moon before a voice spoke inside my head, “Like, dude…you know this author. Remember the diner thing and the other one, with the monster?” Oh, yeah. A. Lee Martinez. I’ll have to keep that in mind. Now, please shut up and let me read.


Note: The full review will be published in May on SF-Site, and will be available both there and here after June 1, 2011
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