Born to Run

Hotel Le Meridien, Barcelona
 

My guidebook tells me that Bruce Springsteen stayed

at the fancy hotel across the wide boulevard

from my apartment when he came to Barcelona.

Last night as I was walking past I saw the doorman

putting a couple of rich-looking Germans (or so I imagined them to be)

into a taxi and I pretended that next, he would

flag down another cab, this one for Bruce,

who'd be coming down the old cobblestone walk from the hotel,

who'd stop and say to me, hey, you're an American girl,

aren't you baby? And I'd say yeah, I am, and I've come

just as far as you have to get here--

from the wrong side of the tracks to this side of

the ocean, from a nowhere town to this cosmopolis.

I was born to run, just like you, and I've run here,

and where's that taxi taking you next,

and when and where do we ever stop running?

--Renny Christopher