“Take off your Band-Aid ‘cause I don’t believe in touchdowns”
– Jeff Tweedy
No greater pomp exists, no cannibal
utterance so deep & acrid sweet
as Hike – so soft & passively glib
as Go Long. Living in the codified
rituals of chew & spit or total blitz,
supposed Glory breathes. Acoustic
chambers of consonants drift & grunt
& click & hammer, arm in bruised
arm & stammer of the backup kicker
chewing his nails on the sideline
while his army eats its turf & foe
into the zone of crimson, his part:
to split the yellow uprights, praying
O God, please don’t make me go in.
Photo: Backup kicker Matt Marcincin during Penn State’s annual Blue-White Game by Mike Pettigano
