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YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA

Scrimmage


Trees stand ready for snow & ice
slanting over far hills. An eagle coin 
flipped at the blue hour spins double-
headed. Fall’s imperial purples bloody
the rival battle gear for the pigskin.
After big steaks & imaginary girlfriends,
proxy platoons hunker under helmets
like loggerheads in wishbone & pistol
formations, ready for lightning to strike
or randy billy goats to butt heads. Honor
& dishonor touch lightly as the fans cheer.
The return of every nagging in the head
sits at the base of the spine wound tight
as a mainspring of bone & gut, the hum
of silent centuries till the ball is snapped. 
The peacocks spread their tail-feathers
on the sidelines of the sweaty gridiron,
hurrahing each touchdown & field goal
in the percussive air, running in place
every second left on a brutal clock.



86     The Paris-American

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Yusef Komunyakaa's most recent book is entitled The Chameleon Couch (Farrar Strauss and Giroux, 2011), which was shortlisted for the 2012 International Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also a recipient of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and Pulitzer Prize for his collection Neon Vernacular (Wesleyan University Press, 1994). Currently, he teaches at New York University and is a famous member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.


  
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 Rickey Laurentiis
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