Sports shape us.
We grow up reading the newspaper
from the back pages to the front.
We study box scores
as if they were religious texts.
We give our heroes powers
we wish we had.
Who has not dreamed of
hitting a walk-off home run,
knocking in a 20-foot putt,
kicking the winning field goal?
We expect our sports to provide
the excitement our lives lack,
as we work, toil and dream.
Sports exists as the link
between fathers and sons,
mothers and daughters.
We play together so we don’t die alone.
We dream to make ourselves heroes
in our own eyes.
THE POETRY OF THE GAME