I guaranteed my friend I’d do it within a year.
I must have been feeling my oats, as my parents said,
or flirting with the deadly sin of pride, as my teachers warned.
But wasn’t that the point? To defy my natural boundaries,
When the thunderclap was a cosmic crash, when it shook
the foundation of the house until the vibration rippled upstairs
to the room my brother and I shared,
we called it a strike.