Public Speaking
The fear of Public Speaking has been with me always
but never like it was on that June evening so many years ago.
I still get gut wrenching panic when I think about that time,
it really seems like only yesterday....
A late bloomer, extremely shy, it was a horror to be
selected as Valedictorian of my high school class. For weeks
I had trouble sleeping and could barely eat. I knew
disaster was close at hand..
.
The day of graduation I prayed for a quick death, thought
seriously of faking a terminal illness, and cried all afternoon.
And you know what? It was just a bad as I thought it
would be.....
My throat closed, I whispered and croaked and didn't say
one coherent thing. Dead silence. Then clapping,
led by my frantic parents. No one ever mentioned the debacle..
but at our ten year reunion I was nominated as the girl
who had changed the most. Oh, that little victory was sweet.
but, dear God, I still remember......
For John Heck's contest..
Copyright © Barbara Gorelick | Year Posted 2010
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