Maurice Greene, the Fastest Man Alive, Is Asked the Secret of His Success.

Maurice Greene,
the Fastest Man Alive,
Is Asked the Secret of His Success

   He answers almost before the question's out,
   neither jumping the gun, nor waiting around
   for the undulation of sound

   to lap him, but, surging on the still moment
   of the thought's articulation, he foots
   the border of start and stop.

   This urge to meet the upward lilts of questions,
   to train them with trochaic ankle weights,
   this deliberative slash

   toward finishing things is over in a flash:
   Patience, he says. Patience is at last
   what it takes to win the hundred-yard dash.