Keeley Schroder’s Adventurous April Challenge

Hurdle

For the prompt: Write a free verse poem about an obstacle you’ve overcome in your life

A girl jumps hurdles on the track, her body all over the place. Image by author via PhotoLeap.

(Should I not have tagged you, or you’d like to be added? Please let me know 💜)

Clumsy didn’t begin
to define the state of me
who could somersault over
fire hydrants
while doing nothing
but walking down the street.

Yet somehow, here I stood,
wind whipping in my face
slated to win.
Third heat of the afternoon
in the heat of the afternoon
— June day, green grass, warm sun —
start line
arrayed before us, like so many teeth
the hurdles from each competing school

Gun raised, BLAM!, and off we go
I soar, I float, I am perfectly aligned
first of five jumps down
raise my head
the wooden cross replaced
by this metal of the future
clean lines, all curves, pristine