Play Ball!
By:
Gesenia Burley
The coach puts me in the game.
OH, The excitement I feel
Cannot be contained.
Could this possibly be real?
Like the joy of a child,
I jumped in and passed the ball.
At this point all seem mild;
The coach is proud, no bad calls.
Round 2, all things fail.
I’m in so much pain,
Because I trip and fell.
I hear the coach yelling my name.
He helps me up,
And sits me down on the bench.
Oh, the embarrassment! I felt like a scrub!
My fist begins to clench.
I hear my coach again yelling my name.
I walked up to him feeling quite ashamed.
He says, “Can you get back in the game?”
What me? I fell!
The coach says to me, “Can you accept life’s pain?”
Clearly not! I mean could he not tell?
I sit down and think about what the coach had meant.
Hmmm, for you see I will trip and fall again many times in the game of life;
And the pain will be immense.
Question is, Can I get up and fight?
Can I accept the falls in the game of life?
Will I give up in the game?
I think to myself: if I give up, I alone am to blame.
Because life’s games do come with a price.
So I decided to accept the price.
I grabbed a ball, a different ball; a basketball.
Yes, it’s true I’ll fall again but I am not giving up at all!
I’ll swim again but this time with a swimming device.