auditioning

to risk the fall

cohesion can have a power I don’t understand,
for I cannot really get
why I am not completely undone
by each and every essay of self hazarded forth,
each taking of a risk,
each time a person ventures forth
out of the protective shell behind which we all can hide,

just to move through a day can be bravery for some,

this week I have borne witness
to kid after kid with the gumption to stand alone before us,
and deliver line and a cappella song,
while each knowing full well that we will judge and compare
and then cast our musical,

I understand better those who don’t audition,
who fear they don’t have it,
than I can understand those,
for whom fear and doubt companion them like friends,
and who can then still take a risk,

that impulse to risk the fall
and to reach for the gold
is our species at our best,
I am undone emotionally,
at least that’s a way to describe how moved I am,
by the chutzpah middle schoolers can find and choose,
even when self-doubt shouts at them, “No!”

by Henry H. Walker
October 26, ’12