All I Want To Be Is A Beloved Underdog

All I want to be is a beloved underdog –

A beloved underdog everybody roots because nobody believes in him –

A beloved underdog everybody roots for because nobody believes in him, who is universally admired because everyone has overlooked him for so long –

Whose status as an underdog is never compromised by success –

Whose every victory is an upset –

Whose loneliness is matched only by his popularity –

Whose pained solitude, in empty tunnels and hallways and culverts and so on, is ceaselessly broached by the careful, sympathetic attention of the mighty –

Who eternally overcomes the never-ending obstacles placed before him, but with genuine dramatic tension accompanying each new struggle, rather than a sense of repetition or foregone conclusion –

Who endears himself to the powerful, the beautiful, the rich and the fortunate with pluck, grit, good attitude, stick-to-it-iveness, indefatigability, grindstone, broken ankle, and so on –

Who everybody helps because I refuse to let anybody help me –

Who neither forfeits his underdog status nor loses – who wins, perpetually – who remains degraded, perpetually – who is forever reaching out to grasp an unexpected hand from above – who remains forever below the unexpected hand from above –

Who faces no competition,

who remains a hapax legomenon,

Who never shares his empty tunnel, hallway, culvert, gulley, "I come here just to think" location with another male underdog hoping to be noticed –

Who never has to compete with someone else's pluck,

Some else's no-chance last-ditch keep-at-it hopes,

Some other sore-paw dog crouched underneath the head coach's car,

Someone else smoothing his hair back and working a starburst of hopeful amazement into wide wet eyes,

Reaching out to grasp the sturdy hand of outstretched help, whispering, "Surely this can't be for me,"

Sailing over my head and rolling underneath me at the same time –

Always lower, always further along on the great way up, than I am –

The only underdog in a ten-mile radius –

This hope's not big enough for the two of us.

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