Even though this blog is mainly about creative writing, I mentioned that gymnastics is a huge part of my life and that I may blog about it from time to time. Recently, I’ve been pretty frustrated about gymnastics, and practices have been kinda rough, so I decided to try to put that frustration into words in this poem that I wrote.
Salt
Tears
Tears rolling down her face.
Of pain, of frustration, of exhaustion.
She is perched on the bar, like a bird perched on a tree branch, getting ready to fly for the first time
There’s chalk in the air, in her lungs, in her heart.
Just do it
Just do it
Just do it.
She takes a deep breath, the muscles in her back aching as they stretch.
Sweaty after a long practice, nervous
Cast, toes, up, fast, flip
She casts, hips up
bringing her toes to the bar
swings
then lets go
she’s going up, up, up
pulls her knees to her chest, aggressively, ready to flip
And for a moment-
she’s there, she did it!
then she realizes
freaks out, stomach plummeting.
her heart wants to keep going
her brain forcing her body to stop
she’s feels like she’s not in control
–I can’t-
For a moment she thought she had it then-
phlam.
Eyes stinging, headache creeping in.
a face full of pit, full of disappointment.
Maybe next time
I do not own the image used in this post. Image taken from here