The Century She Outran (Wilma Rudolph)

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
You had polio
at four
and the doctor
told your mother
the left leg
was finished
and your mother
carried you
on a bus
fifty miles
each way
to Nashville
every week
for two years
for the therapy
the hospital
in Clarksville
would not
give you
because the hospital
in Clarksville
had a door
with a sign
on it
and the sign
had the dry
chalk taste
of a sentence
your mother
had decided
to
outrun
before you
could.

[Verse 2]
You wore
a brace
until you were twelve
and then
you did not
wear a brace
and then
you played
basketball
and then
you ran
and the running
had the bright
shocked feel
of a window
thrown open
in a house
that had been
told
it did not
have windows.

[Chorus]
Rome.
Nineteen sixty.
Three gold medals
in front of
a planet
that had been
told
by a doctor
in Clarksville
in nineteen forty-four
that the left leg
was finished
and the left leg
was not
finished
and the left leg
crossed
three finish lines
in Rome
before
any other
leg
in the world
and the leg
did not
consult
the doctor
on the way
past.

[Outro]
You went home
to Clarksville
and the city
wanted
to throw you
a parade
and you said
the parade
will be integrated
or the parade
will not
happen
and the parade
was integrated
and it was
the first
integrated
public event
in the history
of Clarksville
Tennessee
and the leg
that was
finished
walked
the whole
parade route
slowly
because
the slow walk
through Clarksville
was the longer
race
and you
had been
running it
since
your mother
got on
the bus.

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