By Rosanne Walters
You came alive at dawn, craving speed,
eager to clock time and distance.
Arms and legs pumping faster, ever faster,
pressing through boundaries real or imagined,
you relished each strident strike
against the concrete maze of city streets.
Spine now curved, limbs powerless,
you dream backwards gauging feats and failures in
hills once climbed, obstacles dodged, competitors overtaken.
Memories tangled in past and present, your days flow slowly,
each new morning a reward to savor,
yesterdays’ triumphs dimming with each sunset.
In the space between running and remembering,
you see unspoken truth in lines etched
across your face by the wind,
hear reveries echoing in the surrounding silence
and feel tomorrow as it slips from your grasp,
released to the night sky.
Rosanne Walters, Ph.D., retired after a long career in teaching to include ten years as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University, where she taught MPA students. Rosanne also served as the Executive Director of several nonprofit organizations to include a shelter for battered women and rape crisis center, a youth development organization, and a YWCA. In addition, Rosanne was the Community Liaison Officer for the United State Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
She retired from the City of Newport News, Virginia, as the Deputy Director of the Department of Human Services.
She now considers herself to be an aspiring poet who hopes to inspire her children and grandchildren to follow their dreams. She lives with her husband of 54 years and their two rescue dogs, Wrangler and Riley.