Running with David

He wore his yellow boots

He was in his grey shorts

His shirt numbered 23, big and black

His hair blonde

His face smiling

I knew him because I ran with him

side by side in the Mercer Madness

Five-Mile Race

For he jogged in his yellow boots

and I my blue jeans and red T-shirt

For he had told me he was four years old

For he haddecided to run ahead of his grandparents

For he had pressed his little left hand into my bigger right hand

For he turned and gasped out, "We should not let them beat us!"

Between us, that was no less than an army command

And so we crossed the bridge of University Drive

And down the slope and up the slope

And David said,"We should never stop!"

I already forgot where a big guy got ahead of us,

and then a big girl

I thought it was over but it wasn't

For David said,"We should not let them beat us!"

And we ran, and we ran,

And David gave another command

"Even if we lose this time, we will win in the next!"

And we ran, and we ran, passing two ladies

with or without saying "Excuse us!"

And that was great

For who ever wesaw next

David would declare our triumph

"We passed two people!"

"We passed two people!"

as if what we threw behind were the whole world.

And we ran and we ran until the very end

Where we got our picture of victory made.

Postscript:

This poem was written in 2002 when I was about to graduate from Mercer University. I first shared it with my poetry professor, who regarded it as one of his favorite. Many a year later, I still recall that experience of running with David with special fondness. Both David and I, in different parts of our lives, have gone through some challenges. I, out of my Chinese upbringing, just toughed it up, holding fast to the conventional wisdom, "吃得苦中苦，方为人上人" (The more you can suffer, the better you are than others.) In contrast, David seems to meet adversities in a very different way, as can be revealed in the race. It made me reflect on my childhood and the source of David's strength. 

I was once a four year old. Back then, my only remembered adventure was rolling down the stairs of my maternal uncle's house in a neighboring county. That was also the farthest I had gone before I went to college in Kunming, which was about 700 kilometers from my hometown. So, meeting David, or rather letting David meet me, in a race together was eye-opening. It opened to me a different childhood. It made me wonder about his perseverance during the five-mile race. It made me wonder about his family, including his grandparents. Later, I saw him again in the First Baptist Church. His mother played the flute on that day. I was told that his parents were divorced. I began to wonder even more about the inner strength in this little child. Maybe I had run with a David who has fought bare-handed with wild animals and even dared to challenge Goliath.