Winning isn't Everything

Winning isn’t Everything

Biography Diane Ackerman


On the face of this midfielder,

a saint’s passion.

Sweat brilliantines his hair

flat as a seal pup’s fur.



Thorns rake one knee, and fatigue

is a train whistle that never quits.

In his mind, the falcon of defeat

slip off its own hood



and sails into the vapory cold December,

hangs like a crucifixion over the field,

then slants down the wide thermal

of his shame. Today 2 + 2 is algebra,



and nothing will transmute

his base metal to gold leaf.



When crowd and players have gone,

he watches the sun set



under a tumultuous bruise of sky,

below the empty grin of the bleachers,



deep into the valley,

a ghastly, yellow bile draining out.

brilliantine a perfumed hair oil

transmute to change or transform

Dianne Ackerman
Poem sourced from: Mahoney, B. (2009). Poetry Reloaded. Melbourne, VIC: Cambridge University PressPhoto sourced from: http://photos.igougo.com