Those moments in time

When you have some of it

But not too much

To tie your laces up right

Knotting them laces to play hardball

Then you dust the nylon with them fingertips

Before you clip your nails

After all of that, you close your eyes

Imagining the stretch that leads to what comes to pass

Forgetting the national anthem of lies

When you drop squats and lunges to keep your butt thin

They call it a stretch run

Although if you stretch too far

You can pull something

Running for too long

Can take you off track

Thus, the beauty of the stretch run

Where you run to stretch your pace

Acquired with a stench in taste

Settles the pace in which you stride

Right from the shoe store as a child

Into the visions of grandeur

Which once moved in your own mind

At frantic paces

Now after a stretch run

You stretch the nylon band

Of one part to a snap

Then you glide

Your inelastic stride

Flies on the earth

Your steps hover

Above the foxes and hounds

These cushioned neoprene soles

Crush the rock marriages

Crackling the sassafrass and black cherry leaves in The Finger Lakes

Left and right

Back and forth

Up and Down

Dip and drive

Out that life