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The Best is the Enemy of the Good

write4hire












I Wish Tom Brady …


the privilege of standing in front

of the dairy case at Dollar General


reaching for the Parkay instead of

Land O Lakes, the honor of looking


at himself in a bathroom mirror,

yellowed teeth, a bald head, sagging


jowls, the blessedness of his belly

jiggling as he runs to a thankless


job as assistant manager where

he is required to wear a stupid hat.


I wish him my laziness, I wish him

your fear, I wish him the salvation


of failure we all know in our bones.

I wish him lost faith, sadness, despair,


hypochondria, boils, pestilence,

a woman at a bar staring past him


as he asks her to dance, some pompous

baby-faced asset manager yelling


at him to get lost, get a life, drop dead.

And then I wish him a surfing lesson


in the hereafter with the angelic

Richard Byrd, straddling a Dewey Weber,


learning to read the rolling swells

from a sweet and kind and patient man


who knows how to walk on water,

who would guide him into one sacred


barrel after another, further and farther

from his ghastly fate as an earthbound


hero, the soul sucking ambition

that comes with the dumb luck


of a strong arm, a handsome puss,

millions of adoring fans, the utter


impoverishment of spirit that follows

beefy blockers into a neck-snapping


horse collar for anyone who dreams

of being Tom Brady. Even Tom Brady.


–SL, Hatteras Island, NC, August 2023

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Larry Winters
Larry Winters
Aug 22, 2023

You, my friend, are surfing the fifty-footers with a well-waxed surfboard. All the best waves are within. Go well L

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write4hire
Aug 22, 2023
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Thank you, my good friend.

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