the first football game
aside from the ones
i attended to photograph
for the yearbook
in high school
and the one game i
took my son to
while he was still
in high school
was at the rose bowl
go bruins
the first game of the year
against virginia
and the thing i remember
aside from the heat
and the traffic
and the parking on a deserted golf course
were hundreds of dragonflies
plump and red and brown and green
rising up out of the grass
floating over water traps
hovering around the walkers
who had to trek over a mile
to the gates
one of them flew sideways
like an alien spaceship
with an antigravity engine
and no restraints on inertia
and i’ve already forgotten
the score of that game
but those dragonflies
I always find your poetry fascinating and so well structured, flowing, with such an undercurrent. This one is a perfect example. To start off with the football, and then the outing with the son, and I think I know where this is going, the…the dragonflies. I can see them, and they are so much more amazing than football game. And beneath that a sadness that we don’t notice…go Bruins (or Huskies).
Thanks so much. I always enjoy reading your comments.
I wish I could say that I planned out the structure and the layers intentionally. After I wrote this, it seemed like a really large haiku to me, at least in the feeling of it.