When does the
champ know that  
he doesn’t have  
It anymore?
Is it after that
first loss to a
*** he should  
have knocked out in
the second round?
Is it when his body
doesn't do what
his mind tells it
to do?  

His punches are
slow.
His legs are
weak.
He once was one
of the greatest.
Iron Mike, they
called him.

He loses to an
overhyped cute
boy with little skills,  
and blonde curls.
It was brutal to watch.

He was king of
the jungle in those
early Brooklyn days.
Old lions don’t just
wander off and die
alone.  
They get killed and
eaten by  
younger lions.

After this charade,
I hope the champ
hangs up his
gloves for good.

puckered lips to go un-kissed
left hanging in the wind

a Blackbirds song
on a path of its own

a shattered silence
singing of loves lament

squeezed onto the horizon
a future imagined-
taking to the unknown road

long shadow
dark days
freely abandoned
to love

how strange for a man to be so fully imbibed with hate
all the way to the unleashing of indiscriminate slaughter

Sometimes
Life feels like
Carrying a piano
While walking on
A tightrope