"Autumn Begins" - Beer, Football, and a Poem by James Wright

Saw Ichiro get his 2,000th hit this afternoon. He is the second fastest in the modern era to reach this milestone. Barring catastrophe, in the next few days he will be the first player to get 200 hits in 9 consecutive seasons.

The rains today coincided drearily with the start of football. Fall means football - grown men rush to crash and crush each other. Beavers and Ducks, Saxons and Vikings: Thus starts the long, slow arc of winter.

Jared's got a note about fall and winter beers he's looking forward to. I'm not ready to commit to them yet.

Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio

In the Shreve High football stadium,
I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville,
And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood,
And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel,
Dreaming of heroes.

All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home.
Their women cluck like starved pullets,
Dying for love.

Therefore,
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful
At the beginning of October,
And gallop terribly against each other's bodies.

Hear James Wright reading here.