Speed Of Life Poem by John Champion

No one prepared you for the pace of life
Today you play in the sun and tomorrow is a dream
All of your todays stretching forward away
Don’t think about the past keep moving forward
Keep running on, feet flying
Don’t look down at the narrow perilous path
Don’t look behind you at where you have been
Keep running forward as fast as you can
Arms outstretched, legs flailing, heart pumping
Run faster little one, faster.
Leave all your yesterdays behind.
Do you know what your destination is?
Will you know it when you arrive?
Or will you keep running through the nights and the days
Running through the space and time of your life
Until you weaken and start to falter, lungs failing
And eventually you will be found at the side of the road
Your body a feeding place for roaming animals
As in days of yore
Your life’s purpose unravelled in the pattern of your intestines
Stretched between the slobbering maws of ravenous hounds
Steam rising from their sweat-drenched flanks
In the cold evening air.