Which one,
I thought,
Was going
To be mine?
I know she's
In class,
It must be
Here -- I
Could not
Guess that
The present
Would show
Up
Unannounced
In my locker,
Before the
Meet.
A good luck
Birthday
Card, in
The mouth
Of a
Speckled
Frog.

I ran the
Fastest
Time of the
Season that
Afternoon at
Ithaca,
Taking the
Second place
Runner on
The very
Last turn,
As I turned
It on to
Go one-two
In the
Junior
Varsity
Eight-eighty.
On the way
Back home
On the
Rambling bus,
I felt the
Slip beneath
The glaze,
The slip
She had mixed,
Poured and
Kiln-dried --
All
For me.

rjw, 7/7/97