An Ability That Shines Like Gold--By Ndaba Sibanda--Saudi Arabia

An Ability That Shines Like Gold

Thanks to a creative German doctor

who initiated a sports contest in 1948

for Second World War combatants

who had injuries to their backbones,

one of the largest global sports events

roared into life, and since then it takes place

every two years alongside the Olympic Games.

(The Paralympic Games is an event at which great athletes fly their national flags high as they exhibit their sublime skills at their best sport in spite of a common thread marked by a disability. When Paralympians compete in swimming and rowing events in the water, or on the track in wheelchair- racing and on blades, or in wheelchair basketball, and rugby on the court, or in skiing on mountain slopes or cycling in the velodrome -- what the spectators marvel at is pure world-class sportsmanship and individual ability!)

Ndaba Sibanda is a Zimbabwean-born writer. His poems, essays and short stories have been published in Africa and the USA. Ndaba currently lives and teaches in Saudi Arabia. Of his career, he says, "writing is my life, and my second wife".