All Taken Care Of

A gymnast from the Philippines, who aced

Leaps, somersaults and twists on vault and floor,

Left Paris with two golds. He’s poised to taste

The high life he had not felt destined for.

A vault may be required to let this guy

Keep cash and swag to which his golden pair

Entitles him, and he will never buy

Necessities like condos and this fare:

Cholesterol-filled chicken, mac and cheese,

And ramen … Won’t his junk-food binge impair

Repeat gold medals in LA? Oh, please!—

Enteric stress will be all taken care

Of by a bowel doctor’s gift to gym:

Free colonoscopies for life for him!

 

Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Florida State University who has returned to live in his native England. His acrostic sonnets have appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Better Than Starbucks, The Creativity Webzine, Current Conservation, the Ekphrastic Review, Grand Little Things, Light, Lighten Up Online, MONO, the New Verse News, Oddball Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, the Satirist, the Washington Post and WestWard Quarterly. The poem was prompted by the Independent story, “Olympic gold medalist awarded lifetime supply of ramen, a condo and colonoscopies among other lavish gifts “Glittery pigeon poo splat logo divides opinion.”