Doctor gave me the news, it was a good
time to buy new running shoes,

Feet slap and screech with each stride,
Biomechanic required to repair the ride,

Pounds shed I no longer dread pounding,
lightly on concrete or asphalt, grounding,

My turbulent times, no reason or rhyme,
To the day, my thoughts have plenty of time,

To play as I run away from home, smiling,
So pleased to be alone among the crowd, filing,

On and off busses, engines make noises like cusses,
Cars eating people, personalities seated in trusses,

For their own safety,

While heels kick back, legs move at the speed,
and pace where there is always sound and greed,

To be first to run the red-light but
On my heart right to that red line,

Hamstrings cry taute like strings,
My mind wanders to many things,

To some people, to a person,
Beckon me run, all that way

And I will.

How did I get here? at least a year in the making,
took on the job, it was a terrible mess of an undertaking,

If I can do it so can you,
Don't wait till your fifty four,
Start when your thirty nine,

Write down all that you eat,
You recognize each day the feat,

To stop eating, at the right point.

Get enough sleep,

Aerobic activity, found a
British study from, London see?

Muscular mobility, range of motion
under load agree, let me, ask you,

What did you do as a child, how did
you have physical fun, what did you
do in your youth, not to relive the pain,
and the strain of bad coaching or none.

Capture your life as first prize
in the only race that counts,
living to beat of the distant drum,
you run I will follow,
you set the pace, I will holler
your arrival, to set your rival,
Death on his heels,
we will chase him back the way,
he came, that will be your claim,
"Raced Death and Still Running"

This may not be,
the last thing I write,
or
the last thing I see.

"I loved her and
                            I never knew her"

This will be the last
                            thing I say,
this will be said on my
                            dying out of the fray,

unless
          many
                   years
before
I seize the day.  Seize...
the moment.

Young countries grow, old
Time spills out and unfolds,
Liberty, Freedom, A Place that
                               has it's own dream,
Songs sang, bring tears,
Anthems, passed fears,
                                          subside,
Take pride America,
For every American,
Who has a home, who has a neighbour,
who has a defender, offering peace,
whose young children hold old hands,
whose women and men, continue again, and again and again,
to make it, starts with that dream,
watered with tears, and fed with more than food stamps,
even with so many accents they
all say in one breath,
"thank you for the opportunity"
to serve, to be free, to have the will
from the Baja to Presque Isle,
from Bellingham to Florida, Puerto Rico,
when hopes follow the sun's rise bright,
"Oh say can you see by dawn's early light"

Lift a hand held flag,
Raise a cheer and brag,
how?  You're Canadian eh?

Cause no rift, don't drag
down, or braise your neighbour,
sorry, you're Canadian you say?

Stand for the Anthem,
languages not an issue,
tearing up? Grab a tissue.

Our heritage maybe scarred,
but no country has faired better,
we all learn from our miss takes,
remember every place,
can you name every lake,
walk through every mountain pass,
or thank God for those who have
gone on before, matter's not the race.

History is man's foolishness,
this country has a tale to tell,
of men and women, of sacrifice.

The present is about change,
one of hardest things and strange,
that no one knows how to do it right.

But every one has an opinion.
Sometimes the pinions, small,
are the most important, is all.

The future,
sutures to the
present and
the past, to the wind
change is fast,
courage Canada,
this day is your
birthday,
a day like any other,
and you will not
let anyone down,
                                    after all you are Canadian.