Run For Your Life

Hanging Lake

Run For Your Life

You finished hundreds of triathlons.

The days ahead look dark.

You don’t have enough:

money, strength, business, chances,

lawyers, equity, outs, luck, and do- overs.

It seems.

Writing on the shower wall,

in the steam, sums of numbers might

fix the problems.

In the moonlight you lose that thread

on the last button and think of quitting.

Mind hurting and body tripping-

Do not give up.

I will be a better friend and lover.

With the patience of a Buddha smile,

Wisdom of words to make it

All better.

It’s a dandelion wish fuzzy and full of

wind to make it fly.

I will get up and try again.

I miss your breath next to me,

I long to hear you snore.

I will be more.

I love you my dear heart.

Here is the winning lotto ticket, keep it dry.

Say it out loud with me,

hearing your

plan for confident recovery for bountiful success,

is half the race.

“I will overcome.”

Forget the crows, the State Board, the negativity,

and broken glass along the trail.

You made it up the God Damn hill before.

This process tears at every muscle you own:

You will overcome.

I will be a better friend.

I am here listening to your heart.

When I send befuddled messages know –

I miss you.

To hear your breathing hard after the long climb to the finish line.

I believe in you.

You are my Superman.

Caroline Gerardo

Split by Swati Avasthi

Swati Avasthi's debut novel Split, recommended by my fourteen year old son. The story deals with a young boy, Jace who my son related to as a lacrosse player. The character attends anger mangement classes, suffers an abusive homelife and runs away to find an estranged brother. He dreams to someday have his own place where no one will tell him what to do.
My son read this one in one evening. He enjoyed the run.