by JeFF Stumpo
The towel boy is on screen for three seconds
before the camera cuts to UConn's coach
pacing, perhaps plotting three moves ahead,
or maybe just waiting for some spherical Godot.
Soon the ball will be passed inbounds, play will continue,
UConn will win in an excruciating OT.
The highlight reels will mythologize each hanging dunk,
Each tre, each turnover, each insane save.
But for a beautiful three seconds we see behind the veil,
Some Everyman mopping up the gods' bright sweat
That their miraculous bodies might not be their undoing.
JeFF Stumpo is author of the multilingual poetic sequence/chapbook El Oceano y La Serpiente / The Ocean and The Serpent (Zenane 2004), co-founder and co-editor of the online journal Big Tex[t], co-creator of www.HarryWiki.com, and founder and host of Javashock, the Brazos Valley's poetry slam. He has poorly-designed webspace at people.tamu.edu/~jstumpo.