Running on the World

Robert Southwick Richmond

RUNNING ON THE WORLD

 

        Geneva

 

I run the lake with three Swiss guys

and try to talk German in 7:30 miles.

My pulse thumps in my head.

Servetus burned for what I know.

 

        Salt Lake City

 

A pleasant old cop tells me at 6 AM

no jogging in Temple Square.

Over the bowl of morning mountains

God is doing his leg stretches.

 

        Valley Forge

 

You can run the five mile path on a winter evening

griping about the cold and your sore feet.

 

        Mountain Home Veterans Cemetery,

              Johnson City, Tennessee

 

I am the road I run,

my feet call you to memory.

You were Manassas and San Juan Hill,

Ardennes, Bataan, Inchon, Khe Sanh.

You are the green earth of Tennessee,

You are the road I run.

  • Author: Robert Southwick Richmond (Offline Offline)
  • Published: January 17th, 2021 13:03
  • Comment from author about the poem: Back in 1980 when I wrote this poem I was running about 25 miles a week.
  • Category: Unclassified
  • Views: 24
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Comments3

  • Neville


    This is really quite something ... and without doubt my favourite Robert Southwick Richmond post to date ...

    • Robert Southwick Richmond

      Thanks! Looking it over, I probably should have said Argonne to represent WW 1. - My father commanded one of the general hospitals (242d GH) that received casualties from the Battle of the Ardennes Forest (Battle of the Bulge) in 1945.

    • FredPeyer

      I never ran along lac leman, but plenty of times along lake Zuerich, once all the way from the lake to the top of the Uetliberg. The things we did.....

    • orchidee

      Was you 21 then?! Oops, that should be 'were'. Another one of those words.



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