Again! (For Our Athletes’ Return)

Seen enough of the Rio Olympics?
There'll be a vacuum when they're over...tomorrow.


Again! 
  (For Our Athletes’ Return)

When first you met an apparatus,
  The track, the beam, the mat,
Whose first poke prodded you ‘climb on?’
  Run down, climb up, jump over?
What bound enthrallment’s lock on you,
  That you went back
    Again?

Are there words for your intangible desire?
  Men and Women too often return to brutal lovers,
And you’ve been knocked down,
  Bruised, suffered ignoble injuries,
Breathless chasing the endless mile,
  Take the stand for another trial,
Does it really love you like none else.
  That you go back
    Again?

Your world is a stoic pyramid,
  Where athletes all, in teams and blocks,
Are but foundation stones, square cut and base,
  For others to step and climb above,
Or perhaps you step on them, to find,
  That you crush them like grapes to wine,
Feeling deserving, you’ve got the right
  To stand on Mt. Olympus heights,
Until, sic transit gloria mundi,
  You fall back down
    Again

Yes you, the naked challenger.
  With no triumph yet to bear,
And you, the just once honored,
  Having tasted the rarified air,
And you, Victor, with twenty-eight,
  Whom one would think no longer cares,
What straw boss whips you on to pare
  One tenth of a second, gain
One tenth of a point, set
  For the ten-thousandth time,
You’ve suited up, gotten rubbed down,
  Chalked it up, done your cool down,
And now has come the time 
  For you to claim your crown
   Again!

I loved you when a little child,
  I love you more today,
I’ll love you more next year, in four,
  When you return
    Again!