Olympics I
olympics on the flat screen
stay on like the air conditioner
we pretend we are commentators
curl into giddy laughter at our
stream-of-consciousness comedy
discover we are bad at saying last names
I eat cucumbers slathered in hummus
while teen girls tear across a bouncy floor
flip like parlor rollers & single starlings
then a 46-year-old woman explodes
off the vault in a feat named after her
we are silenced – awed
standing ovations whisk her
into a new future
a different kind of flying
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 