He stares out at a soybean field (his uncle's, if you have to know),
And wonders how it is that what he was has shrunken down to
Nothing. Wasn't he the reason why the football team won every
Game, the bull which broke a thousand tackles? Wasn't he
The perfect swain, in ruffled shirt and powder-blue tuxedo,
Leading Lindsey Carver, flawless goddess, from the bed
Of his dad's pickup to the prom? He was, but Lindsey's
Leaving town, as are the guys from on the team who got
Good grades. He's staying home. Nobody wanted him
To come. He'll go on working at the grange, and nurse unlikely
Hopes that, someday, someone will decide that he'd be perfect
For a flailing team, maybe up in Canada, and Lindsey,
Not the brightest light, will flunk out, and she'll come to him.
They'll go on as they did. He'll play more football. She will
Have his babies. Stranger things have happened, he decides
As he surveys his uncle's writhing soybean field.