While school is beginning again, the calendar still reads summer — and so does the temperature gauge. This Typewriter Rodeo poem embraces the challenge of exercising in the heat. Still, be careful out there!
summer training
sweat is my metronome,
the drip
drip
drip
down the back of my neck.
inside my knee creases.
down the front of my nike socks.
it keeps time with my cadence,
that perfect 180 steps per minute
growing more and more sluggish by the
second as my skin refuses
to breathe as quickly as my lungs.
muscles begging for more
more
more.
there is an aliveness here,
i am a solar panel maxxed out,
the outside temperature finally
matching my insides, the blood
that pumps with no questions asked,
(not even “why now” because every fiber
of my being understands the only thing
worse would be waking up early
to still feel hot).
we just go, me and my blood,
me and my sweat,
me and my fire in my belly and my heart
and my footfalls pounding pavement,
we run faster and faster
to the edge of the brink,
the salty sting of
beating
what’s possible.
just you wait
for my strava
come Fall.
Typewriter Rodeo airs each Friday on Texas Standard. Send us your ideas for a poem on Facebook or Twitter, or send us an email.
Typewriter Rodeo is also available anytime in podcast form.
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