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Contributor Series 11: On Birthdays, Ten ways of looking at gymnastics


07.05.12 Posted in Contributor Series 11, words to linger on by

Contributor Series 11: On Birthdays
Ten ways of looking at gymnastics
By Sarah Endo

1976

To my six-year-old eyes Nadia with her spiky legs 
and flying ponytail soaring
across television, magazines, posters,
is a superhero
barely bigger than me

1976-1978

I begin a series of classes in a converted warehouse 
grandly called Mercer Gymnastics Incorporated
I move through Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Intermediate

1979

Now I’m on “the team” 
I compete in exactly one meet, in a suburban New Jersey strip mall off Route 1
The thing I remember best is sitting on the floor beside the big mat waiting
to do my floor exercise, with my arms wrapped around my knees, the strangeness 
of seeing a peacock-blue team leotard on my own body

1981-1982

No time for gymnastics, so consumed am I
with sock hops and mixers, REO Speedwagon
shopping for stickers and ribbons with Melissa and Stacy
and the whole of being a preteen

1984

But I miss gymnastics, so I start another class at the Y in Princeton
I don’t know anyone there but it doesn’t matter, I like
the way it feels flipping through the air

1985-1987

Now I’m on the diving team, which is a lot like gymnastics 
with the added bonus of being with my best friend Karen 
reciting lines from The Breakfast Club between dives
and basking in the gorgeous hilarity of the senior boys

1995

My family celebrates my mom’s fiftieth birthday at Lake George
The lawn leading from the hotel down to the water
is so big green and wide open, I run run run 
and do a round-off back handspring

2010 

Pining like a wallflower I watch my daughter 
bounce and tumble at her friend’s gymnastics party 
I want to go on the bars
I fantasize about having a gymnastics party for my fortieth birthday

April 2012

I’m with my daughter in her friend’s backyard
The kids are playing at gymnastics, attempting cartwheels and such
They ask how to do things and I tell them with words but then 
I am trying to demonstrate a round-off back handspring 

May 2012

I sign up for a gymnastics class for anyone aged 11 to infinity
It doesn’t start for three weeks, but already 
in my mind I am round-off back handspringing, swinging from the top bar 
and twirling around the bottom before flying back again


Sarah Endo’s most recent poem to appear here was Ice Cream Heroes (January 2012).





3 Responses to “Contributor Series 11: On Birthdays, Ten ways of looking at gymnastics”

  1. Jean says:

    Fly Sarah! Fly across the floor and around the bars!

    What great spirit in this poem!

  2. No one could ever accuse you of sitting with the remote and not participating. I’m guessing your mind never stops. Thanks for sharing the journey.

  3. Sarah says:

    Thank you so much, Jean and Jeanette!!

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