Poetry 365

soft light settled on the cotton field
dawn-dusting his skinny frame and
sonny liston snuck out of arkansas
beaten and bruised

left jab like a howitzer,
a caveat hanging in the air almost
snake-like, waiting to collide to
smash atoms to make sparks to
show his dad he’d made it out alive
and sonny liston won his belt

pour back the drinks and cash-cough for laughs
when the police saw that white cadillac swerve
they knew it was sonny liston,
drunk and full of conscience

sonny liston groomed his mustache tight and
flexed his broad, dark shoulders
clenched his fists inside his gloves and
closed his eyes, inhaled the
beaten leather the first sweat the first blood
the lights the crowd the ring and
cassius clay dropped him with a single punch

sonny liston rolled up his sleeve and
tied the rubber tight,
dragged the ink-black sludge up the tip and
took a deep breath
he’d always hated needles

-http://www.wrenslastlaugh.tumblr.com

*Zach wanted that I include these as a footnote:
Sonny Liston was born in 1928, the son of a sharecropper in Arkansas. Brutally abused by his father, he ran away from home in 1941. After a brief life of crime landed him in prison, Sonny discovered boxing, which led to his eventual release. He beat Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight title in 1961 before losing it to Cassius Clay in 1964. He died of a suspicious heroin overdose in 1971.



Sonny on the ground after having been knocked out by Muhammad Ali.