Run

Awake early, so I run.

Still dark. Real dark.

Almost no cars. Empty intersections. No people.

Starbucks closed, so I run on. 24 hour McDonalds. I buy a muffin and small coffee. 6am, and the old guys club is already there. Half a dozen chatting in the corner. Only other person is the bleary-eyed employee leaning on the counter. It feels like an Edward Hooper painting.

Running again. I want to see dawn. Up Mount Tolmie. The sky is starting to lighten. At the top there are several cars, and a van. Several women are partaking of a boot camp exercise session. This is most surreal. A man sits cross legged by the rail, facing the coming sunrise. I sit on the rocks.

Dawn explodes in a moment that takes ten minutes. It is so pefect I cry. A photographer has appeared and is recording my sunrise. Crows come, but remain respectfully silent. The cross-legged man vanishes, and the boot-camp women pack up. I run.

It is daylight at the university, but the only person I see is a janitor finishing his shift.

On the streets of the last few miles, life starts pulsing normally.

I am home by 7am, and nobody is awake.