A Broken Rib To Remember Poem by JAMES T. ADAIR

I felt lucky to be on a perfectly frozen lake
skating like a young kid
with a hockey stick in hand
Below freezing
Wind in my face
Feeling the glow of exercise and strain
seeing my breath
As my son held the puck
and passed it back and forth on his stick
he skated to one side and juked me
I skated backwards and steered
to mirror his motion
he made a quick move to my right
and tried to hide th puck
I poke checked and knocked it away
We rushed to control the puck and; he just beat me
As I skidded I caught my edge in a crack
and fell backwards quickly
as falling I reached and turned
to block and to attempt to swoop the puck past
my last sight before crashing
was seeing my stick knock the puck away
BANG....I hit the hard ice with a thud and a crack
It goes black for a moment when you hit the ice hard
I felt a sensation of my rib cage flexing
and then a sharp pain like a knife
I had fallen awkwardly against my arm and the stick
and my rib cracked under the pressure
I laid on the ice for a moment aware of the shooting pain
I saw and caught my breath and looked up at the sun
Well it was worth it
Though I'm feeling it now and when I try to sleep
That realy was a great day
Too bad more days aren't that nice
Carefree moments are too hard to come by