Only Boys Should Run - March 16, 2025

the brothers and I

have all passed seventy

and one suggested

we plan a race

it was me

this summer

a hundred-yard dash

from my house to the

end of the street

not one of us in forty years

has run full speed to first base

chased after a loose dog

or tried to catch a moving bus

I picture us at the starting line

as we size each other up

loosen our legs, talk trash

sucks some deep breaths

here’s probably what the video will show

an elephant lumbers forty yards

then limps on three legs the rest of the way

a hippo that after twenty falls laughing

an arthritic giraffe stumbling headfirst

across the finish line