Iambic kilometer

I missed a day! Spent last night cleaning up an apartment flood. All titles shift down one day.


Today’s the day we did await
Attracting poets ’cross the state
To test their wits in competition
And to achieve great recognition

Now, all this morning we have seen
Contestants entering the green
Each makes their way to their own station
The air ripe with anticipation

When all had come to take their place
Their trainers ready, just in case
Contestants focused, pens in hands
A bang! shot out; the race began

With each attempting to set down
A poem worthy of renown
Regardless of the writer’s age
Like mad they scribbled down the page

The refs stood by judiciously
For trochees, watched suspiciously
But in this challenge none would cheat
The record that they had to beat

Which had been set just three years prior
The poet’s pen almost caught fire
In pen, indeed, with no mistakes
Two hundred lines to win first place

And on foot vanished with no trace.

Alas, this was but a hectometer. With a few cheats of my own.

Part of Poem-a-Day 2014. Title donated by Hoa-Long T.