Saturday, May 17, 2014

Michael Ceraolo- A Poem

Modern Olympian Ode #4 (1900,1904,1906,1908):  The Human Frog

Said nickname was given him by the French
at the first of those games listed above,
no doubt meant to be a high compliment
no matter how it sounds to us today
And Ray Ewry truly merited
any and all such compliments

He would be the first of many
who would overcome childhood illness,
in his case polio,
to become a champion athlete
The physical therapy he went through
just so he could walk unaided again
went well beyond that in its results,
courtesy of an unknown she,
and would still be state of the art today

The record:
ten individual events entered,
ten gold medals won
(the International Olympic Committee,
never one to pass up an opportunity
for baffling bureaucratic bullshit,
today pretends the 1906 Games didn't happen,
or were 'unofficial',
or whatever the current obfuscation is,
despite the fact that the return to Greece
went a long way toward restoring Olympism
after the fiascoes of 1900 and 1904)

His nickname came about because of his prowess
in the three standing jumps:  long, high, and triple
(long jump and high jump conducted
in all four Olympics listed above,
triple jump only in the first two)

Said jumps were discontinued as Olympic events
after 1912,
but Ewry's once-crippled legs,
remade into amazing springs,
produced distances that today's
pro football and basketball players,
usually hyped as the greatest athletes,
have yet to equal a century later



1 comment:

  1. Congratulations again Michael. What I love about your poetry is that is is always also a learning experience. I have seen you research for your poems. You are certainly a dedicated writer and poet. This is excellent once again.
    shallimarRose

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