Dear Beth, Leo, Allan, and Pauline,
Lawanda, Sabrina, Deborah
Joshua, Lise, and Christine,
Born today, like us, were Jonson, Ben,
and Googe, Barnabe, two men
of poetic greatness; and how about some confetti
for Vanzetti (of Sacco and Vanzetti)
and Loeb (of Leopold and Loeb)? Ready
or not, here comes coach Vince Lombardi,
who said winning is the only thing,
and Joe Montana, who won more than one ring;
also, Gene Wilder, a funny man of note,
and Erving Goffman, who wrote
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life;
Irving Howe, whose name’s a terse
question of the universe,
and William Styron, beset by inner strife.
So let me praise this day on which, in 1966,
Tiffany Cohen was born, who made us smile
when she won the 400 and 800 meter freestyle
in Los Angeles in the 1984 Olympics.
Go to Source
Author: The Best American Poetry
