Photo by Christopher Luther on Unsplash
Early Envy (1956)
When he’s eight he envies neighbor/buddy Bobby his airline pilot father
who drives his eye-popping harlequin Ford Thunderbird
with gears-a-poppin’ engine roarin’ to and from Idlewild
before and after taking off into the wild blue yonder.
When he’s eight he envies Bobby his strawberry-blonde mother
who on stormy wintry days drives them four city blocks to Catholic school
in her emerald Cadillac Coupe de Ville with jade interior
while exposing a flash of flesh beneath her honeydew bathrobe.
When he’s eight he envies Bobby and Bobby’s father and Bobby’s mother
when they take their one-way white flight
from working-class Queens to the grass-is-greener out-of-reach reaches
of a faraway foreign country called Connecticut.
Fantasy Football
No broken bones
no torn ligaments
no bumps or bruises
that are anything more
than mere bumps or bruises
that vanish in a day
if not sooner.
Fantasy football:
No bell-rung euphemisms
not even a post-game headache
nor pre-game one neither
no brain injuries
no injuries whatsoever.
Fantasy football:
No point spreads
no trash talk
no media hype
no cheating disguised as competitive edge
no cheating to trick officials into making bad calls
no bad calls
no cheating at all.
Fantasy football:
No Trump-supporting team owners
no taxpayer-funded stadiums
no fat-cat luxury suites
no supersonic militaristic pregame or halftime flyovers
no one-knee kneel-downs during national anthems because …
No national anthems.