Michael Lushington

THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Poem,

illustration of a Boston Red Sox baseball batter and catcher
Photo by Michael Lushington

The Impossible Dream.
Was a record we used to play.
A recording of radio highlights of the 1967 Boston Red Sox run to the World Series.
We would take turns doing pantomime,
Reenacting the plays described on the recording.
Then music would play and we’d move in slow motion,
9 year old boys performing modern dance,
Across our living room floor.
Before we were old enough to care about anything beyond doing.
Exultant, weirdly graceful, and deeply happy,
We would try and enter the ecstatic state of victory,
And triumph over the odds,
That these men had experienced a few years before.
It was an odd ritual we created,
To help us see what ambition, inspiration and realization might feel like.
Catalyzing our confidence,
In what we might imagine for ourselves.