When a player goes down,
Drop to your knees and lower your head.
Place pom poms to one side and raise crossed fingers.
When player stands and is helped off field,
Stand, clap, shout.
Jump like petals thrown at weddings,
Lift wings and soar blind and directionless
over farmland and railroad tracks
pregnant with the mescaline trumpet
of the speedball train that is
surely approaching.
Show teeth.
On Sunday in church
Genuflect, lower your head,
Place pom poms to one side,
Cross your fingers.
When sermon is over,
Imagine cheering.
Imagine trains laden with coal and steel
plowing into the sky,
bursting through cumulous walls
As if gravity were only a theory.
Show teeth.
Michael Philips
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/instructions-for-cheerleaders/
