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Runner's High By Savannah S. Miller

By The Rising Phoenix Review on July 7, 2024

Runner's High

A mile in and I taste the blood in my mouth
A ferrous reminder of the journey to go

I force air into my lungs with each stride
The body doesn't work like it is supposed to

My heart in my shoulder and my fists in my hands
Beat against inches of sweat and saliva

It is in the moment where I push myself past breaking
That I think that I am dying

I ran a race once—five kilometers in thirty minutes
Rewarded with participation trophy and vomit at the finish

Everyone cheered with what air they had left
And when my friends hugged me close I felt so lonely

I run on my own now to talk to the trees
And when they don't listen I talk to myself

I am slower now than I once was
But I am faster than I was before

Sometimes I pass women with their dogs
And sometimes other runners pass me

I wonder what they are running away from
Going so fast to nowhere at all except

Arbitrary markers like leaning trees and
Cars parked on the side of the road

There is an end in sight now past the park
Where they found that little boy last spring

His mother had been on the news and now I think
I hear her cries on the wind

Begging to go home
I cross the two-mile line

Doubled over I catch sight of myself
A reflection of a puddle from last night's rain

She is tomato red and sags with exertion and though
She hates herself she must admit she's beautiful

Her heart still beats in her chest and her mind
Cries victory inside its hardened cage

She's proof that what you can't see
Can still hold so much power

I heave in breaths of oxygen
I finally get it now

By Savannah S. Miller

Biography:

Savannah S. Miller (she/her) is a queer and disabled writer, theatre artist, and converted Memphian. She was the inaugural Young Playwright in Process through Young Playwrights' Theater in Washington, D.C., as well as a two-time winner of the Eleanor Frost Playwriting Contest. Her works have been published or are forthcoming with Jelly Bucket, Flash Fiction Magazine, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Ambidextrous Bloodhound Press, and others. She is the Director of New Works at Playhouse on the Square and a current MFA student at Augsburg University. Read more at savannahsmiller.com