A Seasoned Run (poem written in 1983)

A SEASONED RUN

Shoes laced; body protected.
Discipline thrusts into steeled hardness of frozen air.
Sparta withdraws-but,
Only for a moment,

Shoes crunch
Leaving familiar tracks on plowed, scraped, streets of snow.
Fleece freezes to fleece as
Frost forms from warm nostril fans.

Rolling hills crest over snow-fused fields of
Sleeping wheat tucked beneath
Blankets of wintry sand
To be awakened on a sunny, spring day.

Hoarfrost crusts roadside weeds, stubby stalks, and leafless limbs.
All crystallized with sequined flakes of whiteness.
Trees, swayback from northern blasts,
Sparkle in form-frozen boundaries.

No warmth in sunlight.
Only inward pumping supplies life in this lifeless glaze.
An extra mile, now,
To savor this seasoned run.

©1983 Ronald Evan Davis