Prodigy - Elizabeth Fuller

[Larry Robinson]

Prodigy

She was a second-rate prodigy 
The winner of a very small prize
She was a second-rate prodigy 
And when she looked in the mirror
She never ever looked into
  her own eyes
 She had a two-bit collection 
Of ribbons and medals and such
 She had a two-bit collection 
And when you got down to it
 It didn’t really mean
  very much
 But she’d tell her story again and again
 About her days of glory, way back when
She was a two-bit prodigy, a tin-horn winner
And her fame got thinner every year.
There came a day she wondered 
If the stories had ever been true
There came a day she wondered 
And the more she thought about it
The more she couldn’t tell,
  not a clue
 And she started to giggle
It seemed like a pretty good joke
 And she started to giggle 
And the harder she laughed
 The faster the old old fears turned to smoke
 And she said, God dammit, I don’t really care
 I am who I am, it’s truth or dare
And she looked in the mirror, and she saw her reflection
She said, It ain’t perfection, but at least it’s there
She took the box of medals to the nearest thrift,
She said, Here, you take’em, they’re an outgrown gift
And they put’em in children’s toys
And a couple of little boys
 Got promoted to General, play-time General,
And the long-ago winner 
Went out to dinner with her man, with her man,
Yeah, the real live winner 
Had a slam-dunk dinner with her man.

	- Elizabeth Fuller
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/poetrylovers/attachments/20230318/e2acb612/attachment.htm>