you wore the big belt and carried your medals
through the vigorous years of my life
so I made you my champion
adopted you for my own smart-ass demigod
colliding with culture and crashing convention
and I hung up your face on those troubling times
there you stood in all of your prizefighting finery
taunting us
rampant with arrogance and handsome conceit
your dark chestnut body chiseled
peak conditioned and pluperfect capable
dealing its deadly art
brutally, beautifully
intricate footwork no heavyweight ring
has before or since seen
your long lightning reach
taking painfully accurate measure
of man after powerhouse man
with jab after knifepoint-sharp jab
splitting eyebrows and rattling chins
before loosing fast hammering flourishes
raining down real red-gloved ruin
delighting your grin and buckling their knees
until coup de grace blows send them crashing
like mighty felled trees to the canvas
flippant poetry
spilled from your lip into microphones
while cameras found the cocksure
that twinkled your eyes
there you stand in all of your champion’s finery
taunting us
still
beautiful. thank you.
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you’re very welcome
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big Ali fan myself nicely done
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he had a way about him
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really enjoyed that!
thank you 🙂
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so glad you liked it
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A wonderful, well-crafted tribute!
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he means a lot to us fight fans, at least to this one
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Reblogged this on Poesy plus Polemics.
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