Poor Sport
I’ve never climbed a mountain.
I don’t dive in the sea.
Team sports are simply pastimes
that don’t agree with me.
I cannot bat or pitch or catch.
A baseball skill I lack;
and when I tried at tetherball,
it hit me in the back.
I flinched and ducked, then stood back up,
tried once more for the ball;
but when I missed, got hit again
and took another fall.
I ski a lot upon my back
and when I swim I sink.
The water I can handle well
is in my kitchen sink.
In grade school when we played those games
involving run and chase,
I was the last one chosen;
for I never won a race.
I did not shine at tennis,
nor at volleyball.
When it comes to doing sport,
I find I’ve flunked them all.
Bowling, golf and badminton,
croquet and racquetballing
are talents I just don’t possess.
They simply aren’t my calling.
I fear I lack the focus
to hit balls with stick or hand.
To me, it’s hocus-pocus.
I’d rather join the band.
In games that take sports prowess,
my teammates rave and rant
that I do not play kick-the-can,
but rather, kick-I-can’t.
Some people lacking talent,
coordination, speed—
simply choose spectator sports
to fill their sportly need.
But I don’t like watching football,
your soccer or your hockey;
and when it comes to horse racing,
I neither bet nor jockey.
I admit, at sports I am
the worst you’ve ever seen.
So stop expecting more of me.
I simply lack the gene!!
For Esther’s Writing Prompts: Team

Me too! Excellent verse. It carried me right through!
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Thanks for jumping aboard, Violet.
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I’m with you on that score! Clearly wasn’t meant to be. Really enjoyed your poem. Expressed so well.
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Come over for a good game of Scrabble or Mexican Train. That’s the sort of sport I enjoy.
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I agree! Much more fun 😄
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haha Good one and it says it all for me, too. 🙂
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Team sports aren’t my thing
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Quite brilliant – flowing, embracing all sports, and very funny
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Thanks, Derrick. I’ve taken my stabs at sports––basketball in high school and bowling and tennis in college, where a few semesters of sports were required. A bowling league with other teachers where I started out not bad but got progressively worse. Golf with a golfer boyfriend in my thirties, and pool..Nope, didn’t wow in either of them, either. Now I limit my sports to water aerobics in the pool. More my speed.
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A hard road when everyone is sports mad, especially schools.
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This is fiction, isn’t it? Cute, though.
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Well, not exactly fiction. Let’s say it is hyperbole…
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I understand.
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