Poetry Beyond Words: Olympic Games: Bigotry, Strong-Arming, Boycotting and More

I thought the Olympic Games were about
Running and Swimming and Triple Jump and
Ah! Gymnastics
Not about people dying in Africa
And religious bigotry
And corporate sponsorship
And Hollywood opinions

What happened to this world?
What is happening to this world?
Where the Ticks are suffocating the Host
Where every Move means Something
And the "Games"
Becomes an ugly game
And the real players are Forgotten

The Olympian
Dreaming of the moment
When the world
On the edge of its seat
Will come into one accord
Watching The Race
(Which is just that...A Race)
Holding it's breathe in a moment of Unison
Until the final second where the Best Man triumphs

A breath taking moment
Where a win for One
Becomes a win for us All.
A good clean fight to the finish
Unity
In a collective heartbeat
That no Picketing
Nor Lobbying
Nor Boycotting will ever achieve...

Can we come clean
And let the Spirit of the Games Pervade
And leave the Ugliness alone?

Comments

[wildflowermaven]

Nice dream, but as Olympians represent countries, and those countries are all jockeying for position and many are in conflict, the Olympics have long been a flash point for the day's issues. This year its Tibet and China's sorry human rights record, yesterday it was the Soviet Union (US boycott of 1980), then there was the assassination of the Jewish athletes (the 1972 Munich Massacre) and before that were the 1936 games, often referred to as the Nazi Games. Only when there is peace between all people will there truly be peaceful Olympic contests.

[ShawnMichel]

Eliminate the corporatism, the nationalism, the brutal repression, the consumption for consumption's sake--and what have you got?

Blood doping. Anabolic steroids. Cheating. Lucrative advertising contracts.

The Olympic ideal died long ago. Best bury it and concern ourselves with more pressing and egregious concerns: like global warming, peak oil, and the rise of the corporate fascist state in 'Murka.

Savvy?

[Thorn]

"Savvy?" You're a pirate now? What other forms of cheap political make-believe should we play?

[stavros]

Oh, how I wish.