Rainy day run

Dallas City Hall Square
Saturday morning
October 13, 1984
7:30 A.M. 71 degrees
i pinned on my number
in falling rain
five-thousand runners
all around me
jabbering, jogging, jiggling
ready to run
in the rain together
at nine the starter
fired into a torrential downpour
for five miles
we slopped and slid
through ankledeep waves
of urban surf
we splashed through
and through and through
downtown Dallas
forty-seven minutes later
i passed the finish line
someone handed me a beer
and said, "here, you just won"

Strohs Run for Liberty
1984