Morning Run
With every stride,
I saw a little more of the sunrise
Turning from fragile pink to tingy turmeric orange
To galaxy blue.
With every movement of my limbs
—Every bend of my knee, every swing of my arms—
I saw more of that golden orb rising through the sky
Like Helios reaching his crescendo as he drove his chariot into sun-soaked roads.
I watched,
Wide-eyed,
The mountains that were sewed onto the sky
Jagged and dispersed on the landscape
Like the careless scribbles of a child onto fresh notebook paper.
I dived
Nose first
Then ears
Then lips
Into the colours pouring out in front of me
Blood dripping onto the soft-white clouds
Orange flooding the mountains.
I took a breath
—My lungs bloating
The air squeezing my chest,
Tightening,
Just on the verge of bursting—
And I felt so undeniably,
So fully
alive.
Nazanin Soghrati is a high school student living in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Outside of creative writing, she enjoys playing the piano, solving jigsaw puzzles, and chronically overthinking things.