Fixx

 The Day the Runner Died

john clare

Do you recall where you were

The day upon Highway Fifteen

Out of Hardwick, Vermont

James Fuller Fixx

Collapsed into a heap on that Sunday morning of 

July 20, 1984?

Jim Vedova did, for he was

Driving by on vacation

And recalls upon reading

The papers of

Seeing the ambulance and 

The attendants while journeying

 back to Lake City

Never knowing that alone 

Beside Highway 15

The complete runner

had died.

And as for me 

The day before

At twenty nine

In my prime

I had run three

At a 5:45 pace

Never thinking that at

52, I too the widow maker

Would face,

Not upon Highway 15,

But highway 245 with

Not even a hill

To die upon in sight.