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Dad Enjoys the Race
by
Jacqueline Jules


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Dad used to run 5Ks.
His shiny tight pants kept pace near the front
in a respectable clump, just behind the winners.
 
Needing more time, he says, to enjoy the race
he switches to marathons where thousands throng
in front of his panting pumping elbows
as he pounds twenty-six miles
of aging blacktop, pockmarked as his wrinkled brow.
 
We take the train all over the city,
raise our lettered felt signs, chanting "Go! Dad! Go!"
in the same singsong rhythm
he once read aloud to us at bedtime.
 
Five hours later, we wrap
a metallic blanket over his shivering shoulders,
help him hobble off with a medal and a new T-shirt,
his breath still roaring like a runaway truck.

© by Jacqueline Jules.
Used here with the author's permission.

 



Jacqueline Jules is a former librarian who found herself intrigued by almost every book she put on the shelf.  As a reader and as a writer, she doesn’t restrict herself to one genre. She is the author of 50 books for young readers on a wide variety of topics, including two poetry books for young readers, Tag Your Dreams: Poems of Play and Persistence (Albert Whitman, 2020), and Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember (Bushel & Peck, 2023). Jacqueline is also the author of four poetry books for adults, including a collection of biblically inspired poems, Manna in the Morning (Kelsay Books, 2021). After 26 years in Virginia, she moved to Long Island to be closer to her grandchildren. Learn more about her at www.jacquelinejules.com.

                                        

 


Post New Comment:
barbsteff:
Great capturing of the human condition!
Posted 06/15/2019 03:52 PM
Michael:
Jacqueline has captured Father's Day perfectly--"Go Dad, go!"
Posted 06/15/2019 10:37 AM


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