How would you play if you knew you could win?
A poem by Emilie Lygren

How would you play if you knew you could win?

When it’s a video game
you keep trying
even after every effort fails.
Of course you do.
There is a way to win
because someone wrote it that way.
Put a path down
in long strings of numbers.

Press buttons for long enough
and you’ll unlock the road
to the next level, where things
get harder but maybe you’re
a little more prepared.

But how many times have you given up
away from the console and screens?
Let dreams out into the night
where they got lost with the dog,
left them piled by the hamper,
or limp in a jar
at the back of the fridge?

What if you pretended,
just for a moment,
you knew could win?

Your story surely heroic:

the one where you press on,
unrelenting until you slip
past the guards, your success
certain as the name
forming on their lips.

About the Author:

Emilie Lygren is a nonbinary poet and outdoor educator whose work emerges from intersections between scientific observation and poetic wonder. Her first book of poetry, What We Were Born For, was chosen by the Young People’s Poet Laureate as the Poetry Foundation’s February 2022 Book Pick. Emilie lives in California, where she wonders about oaks and teaches poetry in local classrooms. Find Emilie on Instagram (@emlygren) or at her website (emilielygren.com). 

Poetry Breakfast publishes a new poem every weekday morning.
If you’d like your poems considered for publication visit our Poetry Submissions page.

Follow Poetry Breakfast
Facebook