Open Features: Underworld
...A tattooed weightlifter grunts,
her mirror image ego boosts.
Weights, defined by colour,
spur her to new records...
Jean Cowgill is no fan of exercising in Stygian gloom.
‘Foot and mouth’ marched me from the fells.
Consequent widening girth caused despair;
too much mouth and not enough foot.
‘Whitewater’ cascades, ‘Cannons’ boom.
I berth at subterranean ‘DW Sports’.
Machine noise competes with ‘music’.
‘Lat-pull’, ‘ab-crunch’ and ‘rotary torso’
is the language of this gymnasium.
Scantily clad individuals pound treadmills;
their valiant effort going nowhere.
Rowers watch a video:
in a parody of movement
their virtual journey
glides forward along a cycle track,
crests hills, edges along cliffs,
courts danger in urban jungle.
A tattooed weightlifter grunts,
her mirror image ego boosts.
Weights, defined by colour,
spur her to new records.
All human life is here:
athletes work next to the obese
they worship at the church of the body.
The Lake District ‘re-opened’ long ago.
One time favourite fells beckon,
yet I burrow in this Stygian gloom
punctuated by halogen lights.
**
To read more of Jean's words please click on http://www.openwriting.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=jean+cowgill
