appealing

The Maynard
Fall 2018

Steven Ray Smith
0:00
 
 

Courses

Most common is the loop,
a circuit from start to finish.
There is also the out-and-back, outing
to a distance and reverse.
In both, your friends will be exactly
where you left them, tending the ice chest.

Rarer is the point-to-point, start here and end
you don’t know where.
The world’s most storied,
The Boston and The Athens Classic, are these.
The crowds who waive you off will not see you finish.
Every step must be proven anew
to cheering sections that don’t care
how your foregoing fans pepped you up or highballed the sky.
The only job: finish fast.

This passage is also a point-to-point.
Like the canon marathons, only the cadence
of your next footstrike matters and no
devotee will witness more than one.
The only difference: finish slow.