Day 29 of 30 (ONE MORE TO GO!)

AL, FROM BELLE GLADE, FLORIDA

a sliver of a young man

with skinny sucker sticks

for arms and fists the candy

skin thick

muddy like oil from a car

cadillac big and american

made

a fighter

all punch and pimple

and cane ash because

sweet gets torched in

belle glade

down in the muck where

the mighty are made

told me

he was the number one

boxer in the state

top ten in the country

used to being

punched in the face

don’t happen much though

he said because he knows

how to move

knows how to move

away from knuckles

knows how to move

away from knockouts

knows how to dance

and dodge and duck

and wait

to devastate

but all i could see

was a child in a

gloveless world

with broken bits that

have mended abnormally

a boy with a heart on fire

the saccharine long burnt off

the ash floating like cold

snow behind his eyes

a kid that doesn’t really know

how to move

at all but knows

how to make a living

throwing haymakers