12 About Boxing
1 - ONE SECOND One second, clear and cautious, a machine of war unstinting, I recharge my eyes uncornered, of one chain with fists unflinching, Picking spaces, prizing windows, opening wounds with dread precision, I’m a knife and I’m a cudgel, I am living every second And the referee is weighing what’s humane and what is brutal, I’m the truth this sucker paid for, I’m his point of last refusal, He can smell my fierce indifference to his pain’s humiliation, There will be a new world champion, any second, any second … One second, a contender, just outworking, never thinking Of the next fight, just reworking combinations neverending, Never cornered, always stabbing, never pounding, sword and scalpel, Neat and frightening, treading closer with each second, And one second of three minutes of twelve rounds of one life’s vigil I’m the boy with no defences who needs something to take pride in I’m the first parade of power to incredulous oppressors, An