Monday, February 20, 2012
Chuckie the Center
blows out both knees after
two years, switches to academics.
Highlight reel: Microbiology's Meershim:
“You'll get these unknowns if I must skip
dinner! Mrs M a Kraut too, but assembles ex-
traordinary lasagna! Your own assembly too
sloppy, but if you ever acquire technique,
you'll hear singing. Everything, deep down,
is art.” Mrs Leonard in English hits the same note:
“We call it Composition. Not smash-together!”
Memory of young math prof. Fuzzier. Taciturn save
when filling blackboards in chortling frenzies.
And now the Athletic Department, which shunned
when he went studious, elects him to its Hall of Fame.
He stares at the wall where Jilly has removed photos
and banners and highschool awards. Cleaning.
But she leaves for the last time, taking
her old cheerleader stuff. Lately, he tries
math apps on his tablet. He can answer
many problems by a sort of rote, but
how others fall to surprising intuition!
On the plane the Captain proves a woman.
Ends her staid routine with a wisecrack
re wastrel brother to a sparse audience.
He sprawls in back and whispers, "Well,
in my case, half a man better than none."
Labels: athletics, college, Hall of Fame, studies
