bug on the run
(Part of the bacon pete and other people collection. You can find the entire thing as one piece at:
bug couldn’t remember why he was running.
he couldn’t remember when he started running.
people made fun of bug for not being able to remember things. bug didn’t get mad at them. it used to hurt when people made fun of him but now it just felt normal.
bug wasn’t tired.
he hardly ever got tired.
he liked to run. when he didn’t have nothing else to do sometimes bug would just run.
maybe that’s why he was running now.
maybe he was running away from something.
maybe he was running toward something.
bug couldn’t remember.
he had a hard time remembering things.
people said bug got dropped on his head as a baby. he had a scar on his head and he didn’t know what it was from. maybe it was from getting dropped on his head. maybe it was from getting hit in the head.
bug couldn’t remember ever knowing where the scar came from.
sometimes bug got headaches. bad headaches. like someone was dragging a knife around the inside of bug’s skull. maybe that was from getting dropped on his head if that’s what happened.
all bug knew was the headaches were bad. so bad that they would make bug scream out loud sometimes.
running didn’t make the headaches go away.
bug kept on running anyway.
one foot in front of the other. and soon you’ll be walking out the door.
the path was good here. not just a scraggly deer path. this path had been walked on by people. run on by people. nice and wide. there was still ups and downs to it. this was the woods after all. only place you find flat is in the city.
bug didn’t have much use for flat. he didn’t have much use for cities. he liked hills and valleys. he liked things to be a little uneven. kept you on your toes.
flat is civilization.
flat is easy.
flat is lazy.
bug was a lot of things but he wasn’t lazy. he didn’t want the world to be flat and easy and he didn’t expect the world to be flat and easy.
but he liked this path. he liked that it was a little easier than most deer trails. he could let his brain wander a little while he ran.
bug liked it when his brain could wander.
lots of people made fun of bug because of the way his brain wandered. they thought that made bug stupid. maybe they were right. bug figured if he was as stupid as everybody thought he was he probably wouldn’t know he was stupid so maybe they were right but that didn’t mean it was very nice to make fun of bug.
that’s why bug liked pete.
bacon pete.
lots of people didn’t like pete for lots of reasons but bacon pete hardly ever made fun of bug for being stupid and even when he did he would fight anyone else who treated bug like he was stupid. maybe that was just because pete liked to fight with other people. maybe it was just because pete was about as foul tempered as a badger. it didn’t matter. bug liked that about bacon pete.
bug kept on running.
back in the old days they called them indian runners. whitemen did. they would get indians to carry messages back from one fort to another sometimes over a hundred miles and they couldn’t figure out how the indians could go so fast and run so far.
whitemen like things flat and easy.
whitemen never thought about getting off their horses and running even though the land around here was too rough and hilly and the paths were mostly too narrow for horses or men marching side by side in their boots and with their guns.
an indian could run through here a lot faster than any whitemen could figure.
indians didn’t call it indian running. they called it dog running. run for a little. trot for a little. maybe even walk for a little. you could go a long way doing it like a dog or a coyote.
mostly bug just liked to run.
sometimes he just started running and kept on running.
during the winter he would run across the ice at pollys gut or some other place and run in the woods on the american side where they went on for miles. it wasn’t a fast run or nothing. it was more of a jog especially if the wind was blowing hard which it was a lot coming down the river from the north. from the real north. sometimes bug would just run circles around the island. some people thought bug was training for something. that he was trying to be the next tom longboat. or that he was doing it for exercise.
bug didn’t have any reason for running except that he liked to run.
so he kept on running.
bug kept on running.
he didn’t know why he was running.
that was okay.
bug liked running.
maybe he wasn’t so smart but bug knew that much.
so he just kept on running.
#writing #writer #writers #poetry #poem #poems #poet #JulesDelorme #JulesFDelorme #delormewriting #ScarboroughWritersFightClub #baconpete #baconpeteandotherpeople #akwesasne #cornwall #cornwallisland# #stlawrenceriver #pollysgut #native #indigenous #indigenousstory #indegenousstories #indigenousstorytelling #shortstory #shortstories
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