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