A/N: Challenges:

Diversity Writing Challenge, a10 – over 150 word poem
Freeverse Poetry Boot Camp, #012 – elite
The Scrabble Challenge, "cheat"


Climbing to the Top

Maybe she had to cheat a little to get to the top.
Maybe she had to rewrite the rules.
But the rules weren't fair so of course they had to change.
The rules wouldn't let her in so of course she had to rub
until they did.

And she did. She changed the rules. And she changed herself
as well, so she could meet them halfway, at least,
since she couldn't be perfect and neither could the rules
but balances, they could be perfect: see-saws that touched the ground
on neither side, and she found that place, she found it
at long last.

And then they had to let her on, because she'd tried so hard.
And it frustrated her a bit. Just a tiny bit.
Because she met the ones who got in with no struggles at all
and they were light years behind, lacking in almost every
place and she was better, so much better, so why
had they taken so long, struggled so much?
What did they have that she did not?

She learnt, finally, but not after more moments:
bitter, disappointed, happy, relieved. Those times when the flowers
bloomed, except for her, and then wilted while she was yet to reach her peak
but she got there, in the end, that pinnacle she'd strove to achieve
despite being in the hardest place of all: knowing the price,
having not paid. It was easy to pay again once you'd lost the most important thing
but not at first.

She paid her price.
She reached her height.
She bended the rules
and snuck under wires
but she made it
to the top.