To An Athlete Observed And Imagined Poem by Bill Grace

When you have burned every ounce of fat that steals your muscles’ oxygen
And disciplined your muscles too
When you have pushed yourself past pain to the strange land of numb
When you have claimed the table as well as the field as your province
When all of body, mind, and spirit come to competition’s point for nought
Still I hope that you will know that you are special
Saluted here and in the future much more will come
A thousand greetings honoring in myriad waiting ways
Not a foolish little Greek god – or other – who cannot stay
But a moment complete in self and a pulse in the mind of others
Beyond the herd of victim-victors something of divinity that is ok.