Grandfather ( From Blurring the House)
My grandfather’s
watching Friday Night Fights
on an old black-and-white
20-inch television.
He calls me over,
pats the seat beside him,
starts teaching me
the finer points of boxing—
uppercuts,
jabs,
the bob and weave.
He cracks open
his one can of Coors.
The V-hold’s slipping again,
so he gets up,
gives the TV a whack—
just right—
Now he’s yelling at the boxer
in the light shorts, his becomes
his corner man- coaching
from his corner
of the living room
“Duck!
Now a quick jab to the ribs!”
Then back to nursing his beer,
My dad doesn’t like him,
I don’t know if mom does either
I do.
We’re up late.
Soon my grandmother
will come in to wake us—
me asleep on his lap,
both of us lit
by the glow
of a test pattern Indian
on the black and-white screen.
Christopher
Christopher Leibow is a poet, visual artist and a sensei is a lay minister with Bright Dawn Way of Oneness Buddhism and is the sensei and founder of the Salt Lake Buddhist Fellowship which he has led for ten years. He has had his art and poetry published international. He lives in Salt Lake City and spends his time with his two youing boys Teague and Ronen
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