Progress

I wrote this poem last semester when I was training for the half marathon in Kansas City. I thought that it fit this year's theme of "Plucking out the Thorns" because running gave me an outlet and led to some incredible things I wouldn't have gotten to experience otherwise, even if some days it was rough to get out of bed and motivate myself to actually go out and do it.

Cheyenne Main

I peddle my feet in early mornings.

The day kindles at dawn now, and the trucks and

Buses rumble too close, and I swallow their exhaust.

Men wear caps and peppered beards and tattered

Wife-beaters and smoke on cracked porches.

Some wave and others puff and stare, like homeless cats.

My soles bore with bated breath

Beating my knees and calves into submission,

Contributing to the erosion of the pavement.

Years from now, there will be a deep gorge carved

In our path, this man-made ravine that connects me.