Boxes

My uncle
Wrote a book of poetry that
My father published
My brother and I stored
The books in our apartment
Because my dad couldn’t sell them and
Didn’t have any more space than we did
The boxes got wet
Most of the books were damaged
The poems are about my grandparents
Alice Walker
My father
Lost love and
Arrowheads

I re - read the book
While watching Grambling play Southern
My buddy Billy and I bet on the game every year
It’s a tradition
I’m for Grambling
They haven't won the game in five years
Billy usually calls during the second half to rub it in

I turn off the game in the third quarter
(Grambling 10 Southern 6)
And go play golf with my brother
And Kurt
The poems make me sad

I don’t want to watch Grambling blow it again

My brother and I threw the damaged boxes
Into a dumpster the last time we moved
When we still lived together
I think we ran up to my mother's house on the Navajo reservation
With fifty dollars
A quarter pound of dope
And one box of undamaged books

Grambling ran for over 250 yards and won by ten

While I was walking down the first fairway
I said to my brother
I read Jim’s book again
My brother laughed
How many times have you read it
He asked
Too many times to count
It’s a fine book he said and
Cut a nickel
Ten feet from the stick
Yes it is
Great shot Kurt said