by Shizhou Yang, PhD
He wore his yellow boots
He was in his grey shorts
His shirt numbered 23, big and black
His hair blonde
His face smiling
I knew him because I ran with him
side by side in the Mercer Madness
Five-Mile Race
For he jogged in his yellow boots
and I my blue jeans and red T-shirt
For he had told me he was four years old
For he had decided to run ahead of his grandparents
For he had pressed his little left hand into my bigger right hand
For he turned and gasped out, “We should not let them beat us!”
Between us, that was no less than an army command
And so we crossed the bridge of University Drive
And down the slope and up the slope
And David said, “We should never stop!”
I already forgot where a big guy got ahead of us,
and then a big girl
I thought it was over but it wasn’t
For David said, “We should not let them beat us!”
And we ran, and we ran,
And David gave another command
“Even if we lose this time, we will win in the next!”
And we ran, and we ran, passing two ladies
with or without saying “Excuse us!”
And that was great
For who ever we saw next
David would declare our triumph
“We passed two people!”
“We passed two people!”
as if what we threw behind were the whole world.
And we ran and we ran until the very end
Where we got our picture of victory made.