When I Read My Poem at Obama’s Inaguration

I was asked to read a poem at Obama’s inauguration. I was kind of nervous. I’m not a good poet. I wrote it all down a few minutes before going up on stage. It was freezing up there on the podium. I wish I could have worn my winter hat, and scarf but they said it was important that people see my face. I thought, alright I’ll do my part for the country.

Here’s the poem I wrote:

Sometimes you start something new,
but you’re not sure how since it’s new and you’ve never done it before,
but you start it anyway,
and of course you fall down and make a lot of mistakes,
and you want to go back to how things used to be,
and you can’t because it’s not there anymore,
but still you try and that’s super embarrassing.

So here we are, feeling awkward,
figuring it’s going to work out somehow,
(adlib) um, at least we are keeping each other warm by standing so close together
…that’s it. Thanks for listening…Can I put my hat on now?