Relay

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Aluminum baton, sprinted
to a teammate's backstretched hand;

a command in code run barefoot
on an ancient battlefield;

on Field Day, an egg on a spoon in the fist
of a meandering sixth grade dreamer

whose team was in the lead before
he dropped the egg in the grass;

or the passing on of genetic code
and the family name, and joy,

to this boy, the solitary dreamer
his parents lured downstairs

to share with them popcorn and TV,
and later their soft laughter

after all had gone to bed:
the relay stops with me.

May their memory, in stories and rhymes,
be enough, passing on, to pass on.

Image by Susan Rouse.
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