{"id":365,"date":"2008-08-10T14:52:39","date_gmt":"2008-08-10T18:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=365"},"modified":"2008-08-10T14:52:39","modified_gmt":"2008-08-10T18:52:39","slug":"the-sweet-science-the-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/the-sweet-science-the-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sweet Science, the Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Per today’s edition of The Writer’s Almanac<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Suck It Up<\/strong>
\nby Paul Zimmer<\/p>\n

Two pugs on the undercard step through
\nThe ropes in satin robes,
\nPink Adidas with tassels,
\nWinking at the women in the crowd.
\nAt instructions they stare down hard
\nAnd refuse to touch their gloves,
\nTrying to make everyone believe
\nThat this will be a serious dust-up.<\/p>\n

But when the bell rings they start
\nSlapping like a couple of Barbie Dolls.
\nOne throws a half-hearted hook,
\nThe other flicks out his jab,
\nThey bounce around for a while
\nThen grab each other for a tango.
\nThe crowd gets tired of booing
\nand half of them go out for a beer,
\nBut I’ve got no place to hide.<\/p>\n

A week after a cancer scare,
\nA year from a detached retina,
\nAsthmatic, overweight, trickling,
\nDrooling, bent like a blighted elm
\nIn my pajamas and slippers,
\nI have tuned up my hearing aids to sit in
\nNumbness without expectation before
\nThese televised Tuesday Night Fights.<\/p>\n

With a minute left in the fourth,
\nScuffling, they butt their heads
\nBy accident. In midst of all the catcalls
\nAnd hubbub suddenly they realize
\nHow much they hate each other.<\/p>\n

They start hammering and growling,
\nReally dealing, whistling combinations,
\nHitting on the breaks and thumbing.
\nAt least one guy crosses a stiff jab
\nWith a roundhouse right and the other
\nLoses his starch. The guy wades into
\nThe wounded one, pounding him
\nBack and forth until he goes down,
\nBouncing his head hard on the canvas.<\/p>\n

The count begins but he is saved
\nBy the bell and his trainers haul
\nHim to his stool as the lens zooms in.<\/p>\n

I come to the edge of my La-Z-Boy,
\nBlinking and groaning from my incision,
\nEager for wise, insightful instruction.<\/p>\n

He gets a bucket of water in his face,
\nA sniff on the salts while the cutman
\nTries to close his wounds with glue.
\nHis nose is broken, eyes are crossed,
\nHis lips bleed like two rare steaks.
\nHis cornermen take turns slapping his cheeks.
\n“Suck it up!” they shout.
\n“Suck it up!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and a Paul Zimmer bonus, not from The Writer’s Almanac<\/em>, just in case you don’t already know this one:<\/p>\n

The Great Bird of Love<\/strong>
\nby Paul Zimmer<\/p>\n

I want to become a great night bird
\nCalled the Zimmer, grow intricate gears
\nAnd tendons, brace my wings on updrafts,
\nRoll them down with a motion
\nThat lifts me slowly into the stars
\nTo fly above the troubles of the land.
\nWhen I soar the moon will shine past
\nMy shoulder and slide through
\nStreams like a luminous fish.
\nI want my cry to be huge and melancholy,
\nThe undefiled movement of my wings
\nTo fold and unfold on rising gloom.<\/p>\n

People will see my silhouette from
\nTheir windows and be comforted,
\nKnowing that, though oppressed,
\nThey are cherished and watched over,
\nCan turn to kiss their children,
\nTuck them into their beds and say:<\/p>\n

Sleep tight.
\nNo harm tonight
\nIn starry skies
\nThe Zimmer flies<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Per today’s edition of The Writer’s Almanac: Suck It Up by Paul Zimmer Two pugs on the undercard step through The ropes in satin robes, Pink Adidas with tassels, Winking at the women in the crowd. At instructions they stare down hard And refuse to touch their gloves, Trying to make everyone believe That this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,251],"tags":[304,305,306],"class_list":{"0":"post-365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-06_writing","7":"category-poetry-writing_cat","8":"tag-paul-zimmer","9":"tag-the-writers-almanac","10":"tag-boxing","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-5T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}