Game 8

​CHI 111               PHI 88

I am a little brother.

2 ½ years younger than Dave,
My hero growing up
And sometimes still.

I was an absolute fucking pest--
Pinching and
Punching,
Biting
And tickling.

A series of tests--

Not of dominance
But of limitations.
Borderlines.

A blind man
Tap-tap-tapping my cane
Wherever it seemed to fit.

Until one day
He had had enough.

I was two years old.

As nicely as he could
While still making his point,
Dave pulled a pillow off the couch
And swung.

The way I remember it:

The pillow swept me up
Off the ground
and I stuck to it,
Like the wall of the Gravitron.

Held by centrifugal force
For what seemed
Forever.

Long enough to learn my lesson
Before thudding back down
To the carpet.

My very first
Bodyslam.
And my very last
Fight with my big brother.

At least,
That’s how I remember it.

I wonder how Philly
Will remember this one.