I run in oddly warm December air
and chase the orange, evanescent sun.
Inhale, exhale (a runner’s form of prayer),
I run in oddly warm December air.
A stranger joins me on the asphalt trail.
We speak in measured rhythm, then—he’s gone.
I run in oddly warm December air,
My heart burns like the evanescent sun.

Published in the December 15, 2017 issue: View Contents
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Susan Spear, poet and librettist, teaches poetry and creative writing at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colorado. Her poems have appeared in Academic Questions, the Anglican Theological Review, Dappled Things, Measure, the Christian Century and many other journals. Her first collection of poems will be published by Wipf and Stock in early 2018.
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