April 28

National Poetry Month’s Poem-A-Day 30-Day Challenge: Day 28


PISTON


It’s tough, as just about everyone knows,

when you get knocked down,

to get back up, and up, and up—

like Rocky under Apollo’s blows,

or the dandelions after the lawn’s been cut.

Throwing back the covers at the jarring alarm

morning after morning is as hard as it’s cold.

Once is a start. Ten gets old.

Ten times ten is a bold sign of zealotry.

But to turn the wheels of heaven and earth

takes releasing the slap of the burn

over and over, seven times seventy.