The Long Run

Cantering, galloping, racing round
Love had finally got to me.
I, reaching back around
Ran trusting
To reach and receive the heartbreak baton.

Gripping the pointer like a graduate scroll
Or certificate for good swimming
I ran and swam and ended lapping
My mum coming the other way.
I had lost all direction,
Accountability and erection.

And you, are you out of breath
Keeping up?
Well you know,
The Stupid Bastard wants to record his times
Quoting ‘ Now you’re leaving everything rotten behind’
‘And it was she who let me go!’
Not the other way around.

Now I’ve done the clichés, run to truisms
Run from maxims
My friends approximations
And alight at the sight of an exit light.

For the relay isn’t me
And unfair to my soul’s mate
Who finding me wanting would develop me great.
See me not the person to salute
Stupidity
Who would want that in the long run?


© 2003 Once and Future Poems