Superbowl Success

I was in a bodega buying a can of calimari with dimes and while waiting in line my attention was caught by a figure speaking on the little tv over the counter. It was a former football quarterback talking about winning a super bowl, and the implications it had on his life. He was, how can I say, very earnest. The portion of this poem that is dialogue is taken fairly verbatim from his musings.

I was struck by a few things, one is the simple observation of just how important the superbowl is to people. Secondly, I was amused by how seriously this man was talking, it was as if he were giving a moving affirmation of the institution of marriage, except he was talking about what it feels like to kick ass at the ultimate sports experience in this country.

I also thought how much his tone and conversation, very self-satisfied and moral, mimics the attitude of direct-marking and business language, which boils down to the idea of to the winner go the spoils. Here was an exceptional individual basking in and contemplating the meaning and implications of their fantastic achievements.

So, take it for what it's worth and enjoy the game.

Superbowl Success

The blue glows on the bottles and patrons in their rows

On mute the tv mimes the sports dance

As the thrum of this sports bar setting dims to silence

You in your stool elbow deep in the peanut bowl

are brought ever closer to an unwanted confrontation

the weirdo across the room has made eyes at and is coming towards you.

But do not fear nor look away from this strange man

Who speaks too loud red face set around too white teeth

You are so alarmed by this intrusion into your personal space

You don’t hear what it is he is saying at first,

but pay attention and be warned:

his voice will disappear you

into the pampas of his shoulder.

For he is an adman and a caffeine junkie

It is his turn, to explain, his subject is success and fame:

A black sound stage a large man with a withered cheek sits wearing a cream colored suit, holding his hand in his lap nodding in the viewers direction, where the interviewer sits, asking questions telepathically—or the large man is just rambling on in that free-associative, filling time, bridging way like tv personalities do. The well-groomed former tight end at the start of his announcer’s career. The quarterback who broke major passing records at the super bowl, ruminating on the import of the ring:

‘I don’t act any different now then I did before it happened, I still

get up in the morning and go to work, but I don’t know, it seems like

people talk to you differently. They use your name. Talk about you differently.

It really changes your perspective, because you are brought into new levels,

So you can view time open, an empty stretch fading out of

The picture you have ranges but

When you’re a kid you think fixedly

‘I want to win the superbowl.

The time on the field so much outweighed

By time off, a guy has to build himself

An exit strategy, set something aside

For the years of his dotage, and

What I’m saying about this ring is

That if factors in that equation

I don’t even know all the ways how.

Your only chance to have it not

Kick your ass

Is to ride it out to completion.