Spelling "B"

The audience awaits
the word

She sits on stage,
my daughter Bryony
alphabetically in front

her legs do not bend at chair’s edge
as her adversary’s do.
she is slight in age
but not in courage

her turn arrives,
she crawls off her perch,
approaches the mike

a word is spoken

she strives,
is stricken by the moment,
the onlooker’s attentive stares
glaring as the lights above her

she shakes.
her chin trembles,
tears well up in her eyes

she runs to us
overwhelmed,
hides her face in our laps
and cries

competition can be cruel