A Runner’s Prayer
Evidence of age descends like acid rain
In an ugly torrent of unrelenting pain.
Like bitter poison from the devil’s cup…
I may fall down, but I’m never giving up.
Hear me, witness my quadragesimal sacrifice:
Forty days of abstinence, countless bags of ice.
Time out, time is up for this twisted knee…
Angel of devout runners, keep watch o’er me.
So I leave my will to you, with promise made,
Submitting to the skill of surgeon’s steel blade
Pressing against this delicate sheath of skin…
Oh steady hands, undo the mangled mess within.
Darkness, darkness, take my body home
To twilight sleep where my mind can roam,
Speeding past the birds, the deer, the trees…
So that I may breathe and run again, forever free!
Colleen Keller Breuning © 2015
February 10, 2015
