Kate Williams

As the Olympics are usually around this time of the year – July-August, I thought I’d jump in with an Olympic poem.

As a teenager, I represented my school in the ‘Long Jump’ category of athletics… briefly. Of course, the tiniest wrong move could disqualify you, as I discovered after travelling for hours with my team to compete against a posh school hundreds of miles away. There I performed three jumps, and they were – you’ve guessed it – three ‘no jumps’.  All with a toe a fraction over the take-off line. Great. Oh, well, at least they didn’t disqualify me from tucking into the school’s delicious tea afterwards!

Anyway, those ‘no jumps’ inspired this sad little poem, published in When Granny Won Olympic Gold, A & C Black, 2012, anthologist: Graham Denton. (Please click to enlarge.)

Copyright: Kate Williams