The modern day Triathlon bypassed the Greeks of old

and their noble thoughts of brotherly love,

instead naked wrestling

was the order in which men were tested;

but is such a hit

in the modern world that thousands take to it

out of sheer desperation

as their country wages war on the ordinary

athlete, swimmer, long distance walker

and they gather their families close

to their hearts and wave goodbye

across crested waves to a world that

doesn’t want them

and wave hello to a continent

that shamefully ignores them.

 

Would you cross oceans and raging seas

with nothing but wits to guide you

and the possibility of sleep deprived

until sleep takes you across the Styx?

Would you forgo everything in the knowledge

that the vast majority are decent and yet

the creatures and new self appointed peers

would rather you stayed and took up arms,

to shoot, to shoot, to shoot, to kill,

in a struggle you didn’t start, would you walk

a thousand miles to complete the triathlon,

when the cheeky Friday night beer calls instead?

So why mock and denigrate those that would,

their abiding spirit at crossing

the finishing line at great expense

is nothing short of a miracle of

human endeavour.

 

Ian D. Hall. 2015