Life in a Drop of Sweat

by Jack deCongo - Capricorn

Today I saw a drop of sweat falling
from the brow of my glowing face
and I understood that life happens
in each drop of sweat we expel.
I understood that all of those times
when I sat in my room on the phone,
as deep as the conversation may have been,
I was never experiencing life.
I understood that when I walked leisurely with my friends
or rode with them in a car
with not a single molecule of water
mixed with the oil of my skin
emanating from my body
there was no life.
I understood that life doesn't happen
while I sit in lectures
or sit with friends eating snacks and laughing
or listen to music in my room
or sit at work staring at the computer.
No
I was only talking about life
observing life
learning about life
letting life pass me by.
I understood that doing all of that never matters
unless I actually did something.
And I understood that I am most alive
when I bring out everything I have in me
and shove it to the edges of my physical being
and I explode with all the energy I have
Stretching my existence to its limits
pushing whatever barriers that ever slowed
or stopped me before
away
as if swatting flies
or blowing away dust.
Whether it was running with all my heart beating
harder and harder, as though each beat was its last,
and if it didn't push itself more it'd stop,
my legs aching and screaming from pain
but also from the thrill of the deepest pits of life...
Whether it was working my body, 
moving it along the sparring ring
eyes intent
legs anticipating
building up the pressure until I explode
and start throwing kicks as if my life depended on it
and in a way it does...
Whether it was fighting the very edge of a disease
that tosses fevers and chills alternately
hoping to make me slip
exhausting my health until I can hardly sit up 
without making my head swim..
I was alive, and the flame of life surged
to help me push myself further.
And each drop of sweat that slid off my tiring body
showed just how alive I was,
and whenever I am down on my knees
about to collapse
all of my energy exhausted
and a pool of sweat surrounding me
I am most alive.
Birth sign: Capricorn
Date created: 2001-10-02 22:06:55
Last updated: 2021-04-14 17:18:14
Poem ID: 65269

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