AJ Ritvo
“A Trios Tournament”
It’s the beginning of April
And we were not wastrel
For we trained hard for yet to come
A tournament in Pittsburgh
Our minds in a twister
Leaving us all very numb
It was Toby’s first time
My competition was a climb
And Jack had a challenge to come
We loaded the car
And our destination far
Two hours later we arrived
We walked in the gym
And we all signed in
And proceeded to enter the room
We had to wait a while
For all of us to file
Onto the floor for a speech
Back onto the stands
We all clapped our hands
To the demonstration above and beyond
A long while went by
And we made up our minds
“Let’s go stretch out” we said
A few minutes after
We let out slight laughter
For it was Toby’s time to compete
While waiting to be called
We watched Toby brawl
Against other combatents in his group
Then Jack got called
And walked through the hall
Into the large staging room
Then I waited I while
A long, long while
And then I finally heard my own name
I sat in my group
After our group walked a loop
And waited for the competition to begin
We started with forms
Our whole group performed
For then we went to break
With a skip and a hop
I made the boards drop
With a crack in each of the three
Finally it was sparring
My competition was scarring
And we both walked onto the floor
We both bowed
And very loud
We got in a fighting stance
A very fast start
Left the judges apart
And they couldn’t decide on a point
After much time went by
My foot up to the sky
And landed a kick on his head
He responded with a point
I didn’t disappoint
And scored one right on his chest
For it was back and forth with the score
Yet another kick soured
And landed right on his head
A stopage was called
And I won it all
The score was only 3-2
The next oppenent stepped up
And he took a windup
For a punch aimed at my chest
It left him wide open
And my foot scoped him
And bopped him in the side of the head
Two, three, four
That was my score
And I won my 2nd match 4 to none
Now the announcer got his paper
I couldn’t wait much later
For my name to be announced through his mic
2 gold and a silver
My doubt in my effort was a sliver
And we packed up our bags for the road
We stopped for a quick dinner
As all three of us were winners
And we looked forward to what lay ahead