dear clay:

Dear Clay, I understood you:

On this lovely June morning in Louisville, when the Muslims buried you

facing Mecca, followed by Salah and entrusted oils, I found it a mercy

that the shaking had finally stopped. It was indeed unnerving the last

umpteen years, watching another wife guide that thunderous elbow

to the nearest couch; holding the Olympic torch as we collectively said,

"Oh S**t", is he going to drop it? That same elbow that sent

Joe Frazier into that brief oblivion in the 100 degree heat of Manila,

and yet does anything, especially a fantasy, ever end up being like you

dreamed it? Those who lost son's in the Mekong delta would rather

those who didn't lose sons to carry around the guilt trip of loss. The way

it was in the 60's when no one had money to carry around and every other

house was a White family with a cocker spaniel. And the old lived out their

lives in the spare rooms of their children and you didn't have to cut the grass

of the abandoned house next door. There was no good reasons to die then.

Not like today when it's hot, or the neighbors garage door goes up and down

and yours don't, or the Lions lost. And no one returns to their families

a whole person in the 21st century

not without missing an arm or an eye, or not without the rash of cancer

radiation or the fear of Zeca microcephaly where the child you have to love

has a head the size of an almond. We saw Ken Norton, and yes, we were

scared for you. He, all musclebound and buff and you, starting to get a little

pudgy but still sweet and eviscerating, your pretty protruding

the time none of us could avoid. Of this, dad, who refused us kids to enter the

house with a Muhammad Speaks magazine even tolerated you

as he ducked and dodged  in his favorite chair with cigarettes

and warm beer as Al Trautwig tried his best to explain away your age. Kinda

like war explains away patriotism or explosions of napalm on children

explains away the ho chi minh trail. Because "everything can be cured"

as Mr. Conley told my uncles who were starting the fire pit to burn the rats smoked out

from underneath the garage. He who wore the red V of Buchenwald

and who's son did not return from Vietnam. He who wore his sons

dog tags around his neck and he who wanted

you to drag a thing around the ring of America like the wobbly legs of

Wepner, or an 86 year old Archie Moore, or a Sony Liston, who I swear to this day on

a stack of bibles, was never hit with that right cross..

yes he.

Reviews

[W.k.kortas]

Man certainly did catch himself a big ol' ugly bear, didn't he? I cannot try to throw a net around this piece, as it is too wide, too deep to do that and do the piece any sort of justice. One thing I will note, since the wise erin-cliberto's review pushed me in that direction, is that while there was amount of the staged in Ali's performance, and it could be grating and/or a bit frightening, but it was not done solely or primarily with his checkbook in mind (as opposed to, say, Peyton Manning or MJ); indeed, Ali said and stood for notions which cost him dearly, financially and otherwise. Second, I'm struck by how much you speak to everyday people in this piece; I don't know if I'd say that Ali had the "common touch" per se, but think about how far and wide, how even in the most remote cormers of the planet, Ali was recognized. That's the mark of someone who was worthy of being heavyweight champion when that truly meant something.

[h d e rushin]

thanks wk......first Prince (which because of his greatness, I excuse for being a Jehovah's Witness), then the "Greatest fighter and humanitarian ever known" and now the news about Gordie Howe/ . But above all, and forgive me for trying to rank their individual importance, stands Ali. The greatest athlete I've ever seen.......and trust me, I have seen them all...Your remarks mean you know a thing or two about history, prehistory and what predictors impact the future...Your the greatest around here.....dana

[Terpsichore]

Here on this side of the pond, he had many, many admirers, me, my brother and my father included. Rhetoric, bullshit and parasitic hangers on aside, you could look in the man's eyes and know for sure if he had thought it right he would have gone to war.

As for that right cross, in my view it was as much the psychological force as the physical that did for Liston; and I totally agree with you about Ali being the greatest ever athlete.

T

[h d e rushin]

thanks Terpsichore and that right cross, the thing of beauty and force, never touched Liston. Not his head nor his psychology.....Love you so....dana

[Lyn Anderson]

By far, by far, the best piece I have read on this legend's passing. Truly great.

[h d e rushin]

thank you KL for those lovely comments......much appreciated....dana

[Lyn Anderson]

it truly encompasses both his personal and cultural impact.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

you capture so well the mixture of admiration and incense that many had toward Mohammad Ali during his lifetime...and later years...

i despised him at first and then he grew into a hero for me...much for what he did out of the ring...but in the ring...once he retired, i couldn't have cared less about boxing anymore...he was the magnetism to the sport for me.

wonderful nostalgia you brought to this...and i am still suspicious of that punch...no matter what angle they show of it.

i also like the title and the opener...as you remind us of so many who would not accept his muslim name...

j.

[h d e rushin]

thanks Jacob....he was my hero way before he changed his name.......