Fifty-Two Blue Beads

I walked in the local Relay for Life In support of the Cancer Foundation I have lost too many people that I love To this horrible abomination For each lap around the High School track You received a white bead to put on a string Every fifth lap resulted in a bead of blue One full mile completed was its meaning I started at 6:00 pm that night After resting throughout the day I was determined to walk 18 hours straight As my contribution to help keep cancer at bay My pledges totaled one hundred dollars a mile Every blue bead helped me keep count I wanted to collect all that I could To bring in the top amount Most teams consisted of many walkers Who walked in shifts throughout the night But my team was just a team of one Like on a Spirit of St. Louis flight At 6:15 I received my first blue bead A four miles an hour pace If I could keep this up throughout the event I would surely win first place (Not that that really mattered) At 10:00 I had fifteen blue beads And was already getting tired and sore But I blocked all that right out of my mind For the miles I had left were many more The crowds on the track started thinning out As the night grew dark and longer At 3:00 am I got a second (or third) wind And somehow was walking stronger By 6:00 am I was practically walking in my sleep My blisters were starting to bleed By now I had a second string To hold all the white and blue beads At 11:00 am they announced, “One more hour to go” Fresh new faces started to arrive I kept plopping one foot in front of the other Although I had a much shorter stride When they rang the bell announcing the Relay was over I finally sat down to count my blue beads Fifty-two blue beads meant fifty-two miles And five thousand, two hundred dollars for this need They packed up the stages and removed all the trash While in my warm sleeping bag I slept Everyone was gone when I woke up again But the promise to my loved ones I had kept