Poetry | Sports

Past the Post, Get Set, Go!

Did I win? GiaB prompt #2–1 sports

Hockey one, hockey two, hockey three, On your mark, get set, go!

Foot fault.

Neck and neck, by a nose, in the lead, Steal a base Penalty.

Slam dunk, touch down, home run, Batter up

Strike one, strike two, you’re out!

Sin bin Sudden-death playoff

Lbw, run out, caught behind

Duck!

Foul! Out of court, off the net, on the baseline

Birdie, albatross, double bogey Hole-in-one Under par On the green.

Love-15, love-30, love-40 Game, set and match Past the post, finish line, victory You win! 🏆 ✨

© Carolyn Hastings 2021

Let me be honest with you. I’m not mad about sport. I know that’s very un-Australian of me, but it’s the truth.

I don’t mind being a spectator. Australian Rules Football (Go Cats!) and tennis (yay, Ash Barty!) are okay. 🏉🎾

In my younger years, I played squash — on a court, but more often on a peak-hour train! At school, I was fair-to-middling with hockey. Sucked at most other sports. Especially swimming. Don’t even go there!

Oh, you went there! 😆

If anything, the thing I enjoy most about sport — at least watching it — is trying to figure out the rules and the scoring. That probably won’t surprise too many of you given what you know about me and poetry labels and rules!

Sonnet, anyone?!

Yay, so many rules! I love ‘em! 😻

With that said, you’d think that I would have served up something with some style and finesse instead of a shambolic, stop-start scrummy mess — a dropkick, out-of-bounds-on-the-full (that’s Aussie rules lingo, btw). I told you I wasn’t any good at swimming! 😜

I’ve made a great (false) start to Genius in a Bottle’s second series of writing prompts, don’t you think?! 😅

Bottom of the ladder. Wooden spoon. You blew it!

Yeah, I deserved that! 😆

If you’re a good sport and would like to join in the fun, check out Victor Sarkin’s game plan: sports -

How about it, Ruchi Thalwal | Kim McKinney | Melanie J. | Lee Ameka | Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她)? No rhyming required, Lucy! Are you ready to play? 😉

Thank you for reading. You win! 🏆 ✨