The Innisfree Poetry Journal

www.innisfreepoetry.org

by Ernie Wormwood

MARATHON

     to an Athenian named Pheidippides

Poetry,
poetry marathon,
five  hours of poems
from the 27 countries
of the European Union.
136 poems
the tragedies of centuries.
Runners bearing their poems
running and running
through the valleys of despair
over the mountains of hope
to the splendid city.
 
They are from the
Embassies in Washington—
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Cyprus, the Czech Republic,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom.

Breathless, running still
their papers curl as if on fire,
from the heat, the beat, the unabashedness.
Yes, poetry burns the tongue.

Poetry-in-motion in Washington, D.C.,
The poets in their first marathon,
crossing the finish line
together, all in a line.

Later running to surgery, I remember.
Oh, ticking clock, if I must die,
let it be with my sisters and brothers of the word.





Copyright 2006-2012 by Cook Communication