I have dreams
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I am a thirteen year old girl
flower garlands woven in long brown hair
running barefoot near rocks and the shore
in the dusk, though the moon is shining brightly
I can hear the villagers running behind me
and can smell the black of their torches
I've run out of room to run
Having been drawn to the sea
That always comforted me
With its endless rolling waves
I would rather die than let them get me
And leap off the cliff
with a final prayer to the great spirit
who is merciful and takes my soul
before my lifeless body hits the rocks

I am a man in mid-thirties
winded, though running up the steps
of a dirty building in a dirty city
the winding repeating square staircases
metal getting more rusty and rickety
wind getting brisker the higher I get
whipping my suit and pressing it against me
my tie is flying straight up into the sky
I know that when they get me
they will kill me
it was stupid for me to start up
why did I start up?
a stray bullet from below
hits me in the lower back
I can no longer move
my life and blood drain out of me
as I slump against an old soda machine
my fingers loosening their grip
on the suitcase that was so important

I am a man in his twenties
running from machines with guns
I only have four grenades left
and the place is crawling
my whole squad is dead or vacated
there is a radar grid on the back of my hand
strapped over the articulated gray plastic
I can see the things closing in on me
I am the big white blip in the middle
looking like a magnet
attracting small red metal blips
there is no place left to go

Or is there?
Am I making the same mistake again?
And who is after me?

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10/12/00 Sue Blair