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foxthepoet —
HIT ME RUNNING
Published: 2004-02-02 09:07:17 +0000 UTC; Views: 15472; Favourites: 168; Downloads: 796
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Description
Don’t sell me funeral plotson late night television
if the end is already in sight
am I supposed to pull the sheets up to my neck,
count to zero,
smile, and cease?
no
keep your pills, in all their pretty colors:
celebrex, propecia, allegra, lipitor, zanex, viagra
keep them for scrabble
keep your rogaine, your facelifts
keep your death insurance
keep your graveyard reservations
hit me running.
let me go down swinging
make it a sport:
give me a ten-minute head start
and an obstacle course.
place a beautiful girl on the far side of a mine field
and whisper, “she wants to kiss you”
target me on my feet
dodging doomsday’s in slow-mo bullet time
let me duel the grim reaper in a poetry slam
but let me lay where i fall
let the buzzards and coyotes
pick apart my bones
don’t stuff me and sew me up
waste my estate on alcohol for my wake
not formaldehyde
instead of wood for a coffin,
build me a funeral pyre
and set me ablaze like a pagan-warrior-king
sing songs,
roast marshmallows,
get drunk,
and recite your poetry
by the time we’re done
the grim reaper will beg for a vacation
i don’t have to win,
but let me believe I have a chance at immortality
even if the probability is one a billion.
those are good odds
if I’m the one
those who believe in death will die first
if I believe I’m going to live forever,
if I believe I can fly
I just might
so from the chickens before me,
sucking in their pot-bellies,
grooming their comb-overs,
I’ll craft wings from their plucked feathers
reach cruising altitude alongside Icarus
but outrace the sun
light doesn’t have the speed to catch me
these lungs won’t stop breathing,
these cells will break open replacements
this heart will beat out of sheer will
to last longer than timex or twinkies
and endure eternity
just to see how this story ends
and whether
the hero gets the girl
or a bullet to the brain
I will hold onto immortality
by my fingernails and the skin of my teeth
past the all epochs and ages and armageddons
so I can see if the end
begins the beginning all over again
or does the whole thing backwards
or upside down with inverted colors
or just stops
like in the Twilight Zone,
one second before the apocalypse
but my bet is that i
will finally sober up
take my medication
set the alarm
roll over
and turn the television off
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Comments: 105
Please ignore my profile, it hasn't been used for years and years, it was a lifetime and another person ago. I'm shocked that I remembered my log on information to be frank, but I'm so glad that I did because it let me find your poem.
I think that I read it for the first time not long after you published it, and I've never forgotten it. It has stuck with me for twelve years.
I've been off of deviantart forever, but I really wanted to find this again. I tried searching what I could remember of it through Google, but it wasn't enough. I wasn't even sure that deviantart was where I had read it. On a lark I thought that I'd try to sign in, fervently hoping that I had saved it as a favorite. As luck would have it, I did, and I'm so very glad.
It was every bit as good as I remember being years ago, just an amazing, beautiful piece of writing. It left me thinking that that's how I want to live my life, to the hilt, let them take me down running.
Thank you for this.
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This is awesome.
2 am television can go suck a left nut.
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Blew me and my mind apart.
You earned yourself a fav, a watch, and a helicopter engine-like applause.
Bravo.
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I'd love to post parts of this (with full credit to you, and your brilliance) over at [link] if you don't mind.
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Go for it. You can link to my blog, too, if you want. I post poetry and poetry commentary, critique and other bits there.
[link]
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Woah. Really nice read, I couldn't let go of it once I started reading
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that was a rush and I loved every second of it.
On a slightly related note this reminded me that my friends and I have a standing pact to go to each other's funerals and turn them into parties. Let's celebrate the life and not mourn the death.
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There are no real words for a poem that can make you feel so much in such a short space of time, oter than - Thank You. It flows, and the sentiments behind it i can believe in whole-heartedly. Truth in a sentence:
Those who believe in death with die first
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light doesn’t have the speed to catch me
my favorite line. that poem was... wow. I can;t describe it. really, really amazing.
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I don't think my input is necessary.. but you are gifted
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This is such a good poem about our society. I featured this in my Literature journal
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let me go down swinging
make it a sport:
give me a ten-minute head start
and an obstacle course.
place a beautiful girl on the far side of a mine field
and whisper, “she wants to kiss you”
i dont think ill ever mangae to tell you how brilliant those lines and this piece are. my hat is off to you.
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"even if the probability is one a billion."
one IN a billion.
Only error I saw. Def going on my faves list and def putting you on watch.
Nice life/death piece.
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absolutely awesome...I love your writing style
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that is a great poem and the fact that i don't usually like poems its a BIG compliment
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"those who believe in death will die first"
I really like this line!
The whole thing was very well written though and kept me reading the whole time.
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|^^^^^^^^^^^\||____
|.WORSHIP TRUCK.|||'""|""\__,_
| __I LOVE IT!! __ l||__|__|__|)
|(@)@)"""""""**|(@)(@)**|(@)
AND HAT IS AWSEOME. I LOVE THE POEM, AND EVERYTHING IN IT. THERE IS NOT ONE POSSIBLE NEGATIVE COMMENT ANYONE CAN COME UP WITH. IT IS 10 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS. AMAZING!!! 
*adds to favs**
I 
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i like your hit me running poem, if i told you that i understood it all, i'd be lying, but what i did understand was very...well, moving, it seems to have a very good meaning attatched to it, even if it wasnt entended, but the ending somewhat confused me, it was just a sudden change that i was not expecting, it kinda changed the entire effect of the poem. meh, oh well, it was still a great poem!
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i know is kind of late reading this poem, but alll i have to say is that..... ITS FUCKING GREAT... I love it... I love all of it. Usually i would just like parts in a poem, but yours... man no words to experce what i think about it... LOVE it...
Fairy.
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Finally, someone said what I've been thinking all along! YEAH!
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this is a whole lotta wooooahhhh... :+fave: instantly
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This hits home to me, being a fellow insomniac. I really love the lines where you beg death to let you try to live just a little longer and make it fair. I really loved how you wrapped it up and made it feel like a dream inside of reality. Good work! Keep the creativity comming! Hopefully more poetry will make daily deviation now! Have a good day.
~Eric
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Didn't think of it that way, but I can see it now.
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So...good...I am in awe of your command of words *awe*
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lose the last stanza, i'd say.
the whole thing is invigorating (envigorating? ah fuck its late for me) and inspiring.. a testament to testosterone, from a male's mind, but... that plain, droll little "oh well" in the end was ... entirely out of place and unneeded. If it were a statement on the futility of dreaming because of the redundency of failure to follow up, well then.. that last stanza would need one or two more for development.
Otherwise: just lose the last stanza ;|
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this is too damn good man, i'm serious. this is soo refreshing, and i love the idea of a poetry slam with the reaper 
hmm.. as well as providing you with with yet ANOTHER kiss-ass comment, i will 
i doubt you've read this far seems as you've bagged a DD and will be receiving about a zillion and one of these bastard comments a second, but if ya did, then i'm saying bye. lol.
BYE
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It's too long, I lost interest half way through.
I like the style, the meter.
Too long winded though. That's the trouble with you poets. You write poetry for other poets.
I like Haiku.
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What I wanted to say has been taken already! So I'll say this, nasty-wicked awesome. I'm going to go outside and pick a fight with a sewer troll
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"even if the probability is one a billion.
those are good odds
if I’m the one"
right on man. oh also, outlasting timex and twinkies. thats great! my timex is fricken indestructable. awsome poem. and i dont even like poems.
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this is an awesome peice
there are really no words i can say to show how much i really love it
it kind of ...teases the grim reaper...
kind of like...calling him out to fight...
but thats just a man looking for a challenge...
like all men...
they want to cheat death...
and avoid all fear..
*shrugs*
thats just my opinion..
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Holy Mary Mother of God.
I think that sums it up.
.
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I can't really think of a good way to describe this but...holy shit, was that cool.
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