Game 43

CHI 96               CLE 83

I’m going to say it plain:

I am glad my life has been hard.

It has made me stronger
And smarter
And better.

I am the pig
In the house of brick--

A semipermeable
Storm-shelter
Where my family
Seeks refuge.

People who came up easy,
Surrounded by gifts,
Still gotta live
In the same cold world
Outside that door.

I am the man
Who gets popped in the lip
And comes back
With forty
In the second half.

Not the boy
So upset by a no-call
That his coach
Needs to put him
On timeout.