by Carla Schwartz
 |
| And without knowing it I had my Star before the game started. I know you have given me the strength to achieve something unique. I know you've been watching me tonight and that you're proud of me. Rest in peace, papa |
Olga Carmona scored the only goal in Spain's win over England in the Women's World Cup final... For each World Cup title, a star is added above the crest on a national team's jersey. —NPR, August 21, 2023
I had my star
I had my goal
I played my star
I am the goal
Olga, you won the game
but lost your pa
What
if you had known?
I had my star
the night before
the final day
of the final course
for my design degree
that 2 a.m. my sister called
to let me know
our mother gone
That morning the teacher asked
why I even came to class
I had my star
I had my goal
I told myself
my mother would have
would have wanted me to
but my mother who was dead
wanted nothing I won that goal
my focus soaked in grief
Olga will never know
Spain will never know
would she have achieved her goal
were she suffused with grief?
Prize-winning poet Carla Schwartz’s poems have been widely published, including in her collections Signs of Marriage, Mother, One More Thing, and Intimacy with the Wind. Learn more at carlapoet.com, or wakewiththesun.blogspot.com or find her at (https://twitter.com/cb99videos), (https://youtube.com/