ô mortels

Le Tour Week One Poems (with lines from Charles Baudelaire)

Dane Hamann

The Beginning (Stage 1)

It has begun—
The men now walk

With gleaming weaponry
Unscathed and unbroken

To their nervous places of
Honor before they suffer.

Cheers grow louder
In tandem with the countdown,

The riders’ legs grow heavy 
With unreleased energy.

The stylish industry
Of the city gives way

To deeply verdant hills
And crowd-line…