A young boy, on the outer of the outer, in a nameless place, discovers the faster he goes, the closer he can get to outrunning his loneliness.

Based on the poem ‘The Rider’ by Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye. The Echo, directed by Michael Gupta, is part one in an anthology exploring the delicacy of youth.

THE RIDER

A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn’t catch up to him,
the best reason I ever heard for trying to be a champion.
What I wonder tonight
pedaling hard down King William Street
is if it translates to bicycles.
A victory! To leave your loneliness
panting behind you on some street corner
while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas,
pink petals that have never felt loneliness,
No matter how slowly they fell.

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