Memoir for a Boxer

Thick muscle theater

Disguises your complicity 

So elegantly 

A sheet on a crib 

In an antique attic

A feint at catchweight 

Our tough decision 

That rumble

Still persists 

In the present tense

Only dark, real things

Come from persistence 

I relive

I relight 

I’m a monk suicide 

If a match 

Was an invitation

Use me with your whole fist

Make me drift

Reach under my skirt

And yank

A pig

Curdle

The drool

Cuddle me

Clinch

If a match

Was a prize fight

I marvel and gasp

Prop orchids

Out my mouth

Graphic stamens 

Floppy tongues 

Phantom accords

A perfume gash

My memory 

Lasts

And lasts