Olympic Valor

 

Barred from Austrian Christian athletic

clubs, the country’s swim champion

recalled — sixty-five years later —

 

that day. The team approached the entrance,

heard thunder from the cheering throng inside

the Vienna arena. She, in the lead — David’s proud

star fixed to her shirt. When the girl stepped into view

 

the stadium

slammed 

silent.

 

 

As if plunged into a shark-infested shoal, thirty

thousand piercing glares surrounded her. 

And so, paladin-like, refused to swim

for Austria in Hitler’s Berlin games.

For this deed, she was stripped

 

of her medals while — beneath

those stunning Alpine peaks —

the populace waltzed on.

 

 

—appeared in Poetica Magazine. 2008