The Marathon of Silence
2025 Poetry Marathon Mile 11 Contest //Sponsored by: Mark Toney
Contest Judged: 8/29/2025 12:41:00 PM
( 2nd Place )
Written: August 27, 2025
No trumpet greets the weary stride,
only gravel grinding underfoot,
the breath that rasps against the bone.
I have shouldered storm inside my chest,
their weight pressing like half-done prayers.
The world does not wait for heartbreaks
yet still I walk through its indifference.
The road is merciless with distance,
a ribbon extended beyond all sight
but its distance carves the truth of what I carry.
Every scar is a mile-marker wherein
every fall a lesson written in dust.
Hope is not the flag at the end-
it is the breath that urges: once more, once more.
I walk with shadows
and with the ghosts of those who stumble.
Yet I walk alight with the strength of survivors.
At last, I see it;
not a gate and not a crown
but a quiet clearing where the tired wind rests.
There, I set down my burden
not defeated
but strengthened!
The finish line was never drawn on the ground.
It has always remained inside the soul
waiting to be crossed.
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