NEPHART.COM

i wanted a hundred

everyone did

but i wanted something first

to stop

at ninety nine

to turn back

toward the crowd

to raise my bat

not for the score

but for the hands

that carried me here

fifty balls

ninety nine

i stayed there

not short

not unfinished

just present

ninety nine

was enough

to say thank you

to bow

before the number moved

to let them see

that i saw them

their voices

their patience

their belief

ninety nine

is not failure

it is acknowledgement

the pause

before progress

i knew

a hundred would come

it always does

when love is real

but ninety nine

belongs to them

their support

their trust

this

is the love of readers

souls who feed the bird

before it flies

raising leaders

by believing first

i did not stop at ninety nine

i stopped

for them