THE PURE BOXER

                    by Jose Hernandez Diaz 

It’s all a game. Control and vision.

I could’ve been a pilot, or a jazz musician.

I don’t follow politics. But I enjoy stand-up comedy.

The guts, the timing. When I enter the ring,

I know exactly how many rounds it will take.

Contemporary ballet doesn’t interest me.

I’m a traditionalist.

I run 10 miles a day. Avoid weights.

I have the reflexes of a jaguar knight.

With all the chaos in the world,

there is always time and money

to watch two men chase each other

inside an ancient ring.

When I retire from the science,

I’m going back to school

to major in Business Management.

Build myself a company.

Or an island. Yes, an island.


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Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He holds degrees in English and creative writing from the University of California, Berkeley, and Antioch University Los Angeles. His work appears in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Gigantic Sequins, Green Mountains Review, Huizache, The Journal, Los Angeles Review, New American Writing, Pleiades, The Progressive, Rattle, Whiskey Island, Witness, and other journals. He has served as an editor for Floricanto Press and Lunch Ticket. He tweets at @JoseHernandezDz.