The Love Jump

Human effort has a limit, yet Barshim and Tamberi try to fly over the horizontal bar. Alas! Their attempts end in frustration at 2.39 meters. Better than breaking the tie with a jump-off is sharing the gold – Barshim’s thought falls into Tamberi’s heart, touching the ceiling of feeling. The rivals turn men, molting the Qatari and the Italian feathers. In the Land of the Rising Sun, they light the Olympic cauldron of love. The golden flames burn over the aching memory of the A-bomb holocaust. Their deed is entrancing as the Japanese quince flower on the thorny time. At the base of their sharing, there’s nectar for the world. First published in The Literary Hatchet