***

With so much opposition all around,

When everyone is against this thing or that,

And the ties that once bound us in union,

Hang loosened to trip us off track,

*

There comes the N-Y-C Marathon,

That gloriously democratizing event,

To renew our faith in what’s possible,

And connect us to what we best represent,

*

Those qualities that make us all human,

Each in our own flawed way,

As we strive to ennoble these vessels,

While holding time’s ravages at bay,

*

By taking on the difficult pleasure,

That no amount of money can buy,

That only can come from the doing,

Even as the cynics demand to know why?

*

But to those who take up the journey,

Knowing fully it’s quixotic at best,

Fruition doesn’t lie at the finish,

Nor come via medallion or check,

*

But in reckoning with our own limitations,

Neither seeking to dismiss nor deny,

But rather to engage in full measure,

With thousands of like travelers, whereby,

*

In passing through an arc of five-boroughs,

Sharing only in a language of stride,

We come to the simple understanding,

I am you, you are me, side-by-side.

*

And thus, we return to where we started,

Where challenges lie great for us all,

But now stripped of preconceived notions,

Of what should be, or could be our call,

*

We have gauged the depths that define us,

Taking measure of what we think we can do,

As we scan ahead the horizon,

For new windmills to come tilting into view.

 

END