Victory Is Mine

I wish I could say failure was as unknown
to me as my brother's current address,
but last year on my seventh anniversary,
I gave my wife a cupcake with a candle in it
and a six pack of non-light beer,
four of which I drank..

The spot where my college diploma 
should be is taken by a picture
of pool-playing dogs and the caption,
"hey, one leg on the floor."

My childhood soccer uniform is not
framed in my office next to other
sports memorabilia from fellow
professional athletes.

Yes, failure follows me as closely
as my little brother did, age four through ten.

But
when I saw that toddler-sized dribble of pee
sporadically hit the inner walls of the toilet 
and then waterfall downward into
the pool of redemption below,
I grabbed my newly potty-trained son's arm,
held it up toward the gods that made it all possible,
and yelled, "gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!"

I followed this up with an acceptance speech
to a still toilet-seated audience member of one,
in which I thanked everyone from huggies pull-ups
to the first years toilet seat company.

Weeks of hard work culminated in this one day,
and I knew
victory was mine.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2006

Poem

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Cardenas Avatar
January 5, 2009 at 8:52 PM
eep, i guess I commented on this one before. But still, it was very good so it caught my eye twice heheh
Cardenas Avatar
January 5, 2009 at 8:49 PM
I really really really liked this poem. From the beginning it was kind of off-hand, sort of dark and disappointing (the ranging emotions, not the poem itself), however with the final ending lines the speaker redeemed himself in the best, most rewarding way possible. Through parenthood. I'm not a parent, not even close, but I imagine it should feel this way. Parenthood should exceed any success be it education or career. Beautiful, I liked the form and the twists. And the humor. 7!
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