Charlotte Mandel
West Caldwell, New Jersey, USA

Running Notes

Today marks the annual New York City marathon, with runners numbering fifty-one thousand, nine hundred ninety-five. The radio station “Classical New York, WQXR” is playing a parallel “marathon” of all nine Beethoven symphonies. With the television set on mute, I'm watching the runners while listening to the radio music. The fifth comes on, opening chords matching Morse code's V for Victory.

broken yellow tape
the crowd's
open mouths