two jameses discuss football

there are two poems i always think of in the fall. first, "Autumn Begins in Martin's Ferry, Ohio" by James Wright (left sidebar) because it's so memorable and lovely, if crushingly sad.

the other is this one by James Tate. i hope you like it as much as i do...maybe i should save it for november's poem, but i'm not going to.

and now, in honor of Little, who enjoys a good ham:

Young Man With a Ham

I'm watching him from my window. He's clutching
the ham as if it were a football everyone wants
to steal. He keeps looking over his shoulder and
stopping to make sure the ham is secure in his grip.
No one's on the street but him. But wait, old Mr. Wilson,
who lives down the street from me, has suddenly
appeared in his fedora and suspenders and is jogging
as best he can after the young man. I go out onto
the porch to watch. The young man has not yet seen
Mr. Wilson. Then in the last minute he spots him
and starts to run. To my great amazement, Mr. Wilson
dives through the air and tackles him. They wrestle
and grunt. Mr. Wilson wrenches the ham free, gets
away and starts racing down the street with the ham.
Clearly it's his ham now.