Oh, Please, Not Again

A nerd's lament.

Oh, Please, Not Again

 

By Elton Camp

 

As a teenager, I admit I was a nerd.

Books to sports I very much preferred.

To become agile, I didn’t have the means.

Athletic ability just wasn’t in my genes.

 

But back then, throughout all the nation,

Everyone had to take physical education.

Football, softball, basketball we had.

And at each them, I was so very bad.

 

The coach knew one way, it seems

To divide the boys up into teams.

Every day it was all done anew.

All of the team rosters to renew.

 

His best players he allowed to choose

Which ones on their teams they’d use.

Into a big group we were hauled.

And the pickers the names called.

 

There’s Josh whom I helped on his test.

Maybe a little of mercy he will express.

But it remains just as it has before.

Others he picks and me does ignore.

 

“Oh, God, don’t let me be last again.”

I would, because they wanted to win.

I acted like I really didn’t care,

But it was just so hard to bear.

 

If only the teams could stay the same for a while,

I wouldn’t have to undergo that awful daily trial.

It was terrible with the knowledge to be taunted,

That on nobody’s team was I actually wanted.

 

Since then, over fifty years have gone by.

But I still recall the humiliation with a sigh.

At class reunions, fewer and fewer appear

As more due to age and sickness disappear.

 

Their loss I certainly do hate to see.

Even those who weren’t kind to me.

Perhaps it is justice that I still survive

Yet those faster and better are not alive.