Unfamiliar with being
at baseball games,
and not caring who wins,
I find myself clap once
on a line-drive down
the left foul line
hit by the visitors.
Then I catch myself.
Before the nasty glances,
which I sense to be for me,
I shake my downcast head,
grin in disappointment,
and mutter “Damn.”
Again I do that single clap
to reinforce that the first
was not in support.
M. A. ISTVAN JR. is a high-strung poet of veering moods, and a professional philosopher by day. His crooked nose—a hereditary feature stronger than the jutting ribs, the unhinged jaw, and the alcoholism—is the most conspicuous of what is really a full-bodied crookedness common to the male and female members of the Istvan clan. Perhaps his zaniest project in the works is an introductory textbook concerning the philosophy of the Five-Percent Nation, the Nation of Gods and Earths. The textbook aims to lay out the Five-Percenter take on the key topics of metaphysics: modality, freedom, mind-body relationship, time, personal identity, properties, and Allah. Visit his page at https://txstate.academia.edu/MichaelIstvanJr.
