Diabetic, Hospice Amputee Outruns Death: “World Champion” Poem

Skoney, a diabetic amputee who was also mute and partially blind, epitomized “down, but not out.” My hospice volunteer experiences with him at the nursing home inspired me to write “World Champion,” a poem about his long-distance death journey. Although Skoney endured several close calls with death, he repeatedly overcame them until he eventually died one day. Observers couldn’t understand why he didn't give up sooner. Didn’t he know that death would make him free? Because he had no legs and was such a determined survivor, I viewed him as an Olympic marathon runner.

World Champion

Your bedridden body

wins survival marathons,

breaks records in life's

Olympic Games.

I touch your skeletal chest,

feel spirit of an aging heart

that outruns the Grim Reaper

in back-to-back wins.

Some pity your amputated legs,

anguished moans, unexpected

comebacks when death

competes with bare existence.

No one claps or cheers

for your personal-best pace

toward the final race

when you clear each hurdle.

They don't understand

why you won't give up

when you defend each challenge

to clock more blocks of time.

Your laps for life press onward

as you struggle to the finish,

grin like a World Champion

each time you grab the gold.

© Frances Shani Parker

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers in America and other countries and in e-book editions at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

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