Opportunity of a Lifetime

some athletes here in London at the Olympics
want with all their heart and soul and might
to jump out of their skins into other skins
if their skin is rough- if life's been rough
if time's been hard

hard for themselves, for their families
rough for their neighbors
or if their neighborhood is rough

if they have been excluded,
left out among the disenfranchised

want to run, want to jump, want to swim
though few of them swim

out of their skins into other skins
into other lives - softer lives
into other worlds if only they can pull it off

what I attempt to do is to write my way
out of backward into forward

write until l take of, until I too
like runners, like jumpers,
like swimmers, like pole vaulters
like high jumpers have wings


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2012
2:53 p.m. 05.08.12