
THE NIGHT RUNNER
Lithe and muscular
he was retired from public education
now played frequent tennis
and tended to the cattle
on his thirty acre farm
Prideful of his health and physicality
a temporary infirmity paved a crooked road
to eventual depression,
and soon enough the worry of that
led to sleepless nights
Instead of bothering with the time
and expense of doctors and medications
whenever he found he couldn't sleep
he simply rose from bed
and, mindful of a gazelle
ran across his large pasture, then back,
maybe one more round trip for good measure
Gradually the insomnia disappeared,
trailed out the door by depression
as if it had all been a non-occurrence,
wisped into the air like so many vapors
Richard Dixon is a retired high-school Special Education teacher and tennis coach living in Oklahoma City. He has had poems and essays published in Crosstimbers, Westview, Walt’s Corner of the Long Islander, Texas Poetry Calendar, Cybersoleil, Dragon Poet Review as well as numerous anthologies including the Woody Guthrie compilations in 2011 and 2012 and Clash by Night, an anthology of poems related to the 1979 breakthrough album by the Clash, London Calling.
He has been a featured reader at Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City, Benedict Street Marketplace in Shawnee, Norman Depot as well as the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival in Ada and the Woody Guthrie poetry readings in Okemah.