Treadmill

by Mel Glenn (Brooklyn, NY)

At the gym and on the treadmill,
I have thirty minutes measured time
to contemplate the absurdities of the universe.
Ginny died, the wife of an old college friend,
he diabetic, one leg gone
and confined to a wheelchair.
And she dies? Really?
What was that?
God’s monstrous sense of humor?
The benign indifference of the universe?
The totally random roll of the cosmic dice?
And me, on the treadmill, goin’ nowhere.
Why is that?
The universe does not correlate
to any sensible plan I can see.
It sputters, lurches, falls back on itself,
and pathetically I want reasons?
I’m on the treadmill, goin’ nowhere,
trying to put one foot in front of the other,
optimistically, before my own set time runs out.

The author of twelve books for young adults, Mel Glenn has lived nearly all his life in Brooklyn, NY, where he taught English at A. Lincoln High School for thirty-one years.  Lately, he’s been writing poetry, and you can find his most recent poems in a new YA anthology, This Family Is Driving Me Crazy,  edited by M. Jerry Weiss.

If you’d like to learn more about his work, visit: http://www.melglenn.com/