Grip
If it had become a competition in which we,
Like children desperate for the blue ribbon,
Pulled knotted hemp, gripping until certain
Of calluses, if our contest awarded the strongest,
The boy who could best inflict pain yet not
Flinch when injured, then you won, for I must
Imagine the brown of your back to reach my
Peak, a short thread of breaths, a tug of war
With the heaviest child grunting at the end
Of the rope until jerked and dragged over
The line. That fat kid flounders through muck
The way I splash your relentless name
In shivers about me. Watch him wallow.
If he tastes mud as bitter as this poem
Of mine, then I win – and you love me.
Copyright Credit: Jericho Brown, "Grip" from Please. Copyright © 2008 by Jericho Brown. Reprinted by permission of New Issues Press.
Source: Please (New Issues Press, 2008)