Sometimes You Bleed

Stumbled onto dVerse the other day, a great place for neat poetry prompts! This time they would like to see a haibun using the word sport. So…thought I’d give it a go…

Don’t try this at home

My sporting days were in my youth, probably because it was useful tool for burning off the boundless energy children seem to have. Another thing children have, in bounty, is naivete. One such moment sticks in my mind, when I challenged (see, it’s always challenges that get me into trouble) another kid in my primary school to keep a basketball up in the bright blue playground sky by punching it into the air above our heads with our fists, kind of like a weird version of net-less volleyball, where we each took turns trying to keep it up in the air.

It seemed like good sport in theory, but we both realized with that first startling swing that basketballs were not meant to be hit this way, with their nubby surfaces meant for gripping, and although you got some impressive heights to exclaim and laugh over doing this, it really freaking hurt! I was shocked at this revelation, and I’m pretty sure he was too, but once the challenge was accepted we couldn’t lose face and admit it, so we gritted our teeth and laughed too loud and swung away anyway, skinning knuckles and doing our best to ignore the insistent burning pain that just got worse with each next swing, turning the challenge into a game of chicken. I was no chicken. Unfortunately, neither was he.

Uh-oh.

I think, in the end, we called it a tie, just so we could finally agree to stop. We may have been saved by the school bell, I don’t quite remember. What I do remember was the strange feeling of kinship and respect that lingered afterwards as I walked away, trying to ignore my throbbing hands. And maybe just a wee bit of pride that I was able to not only hold my own, but had found a crazy equally stupid worthy opponent willing to try to go the distance as much as I would, to win.

Ah, kids.

 

Squinting through sunlight

Skinned knuckles raw and bleeding

Smiling through the pain

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This weeks challenge update:

• Blog post 41/52 – Only eleven now!
• Writing in the screenplay – Sigh, nope…
• Drawing – Double sigh…
• Feet writing & drawing – Did this one!

See you all again soon…

~Liv