Little Reviews: Poem for Monday and Super Bowl Sunday

Tackle Football
By Dan Chiasson

Snow up to our waists and coming down still.
There was a field here once, when we began.
We marked the end zones and set up the goals.

Now nobody can even move, much less tackle.
I am Ganymede fleeing on a temple frieze.
We stand around like lovesick Neanderthals.

We’re Pompeian before Pompeii was hot.
We have the aspect of the classic dead
Or of stranded, shivering astronauts.

It was early in the era of the pause button:
We paused and paused the afternoons away
Indoors, blasting our ballistic erections

At the blurred bikinis of celebrities,
Then, splaying on the linoleum floor,
Awaited the apportioned pizza delivery.

Now, someone has paused us, or so it appears,
But they didn’t pause the snow, or the hour:
As the one gets higher, the other gets later.

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I have had a nice Super Bowl Sunday even though I was rooting for the Panthers, who (spoilers -- hahaha, like you don't know) did not win and didn't play as well as I had hoped, since usually what I want from the Super Bowl unless I absolutely love one team or absolutely hate another is a really good game. We had kind of a slow start because Daniel slept late, but eventually we had French toast and eggs, then we went out to Kohl's because he needed pants and shoes and apparently has had no time to track them down in Seattle. I got the fuzziest jacket in the world for under $8 and Terps sweatshirt for under $15.

In the late afternoon after the Kitten and Puppy Bowls, we picked up my parents and went over to the home ofthe Bergers, with whom we always watch the Super Bowl along with 50-75 other people. There's always lots of food, drink, friends and their kids, so although I'm usually a bit distracted during the first half and its commercials talking to people, it's really fun even if whoever I'm rooting for isn't winning, plus there's always lots of chocolate to console me. Most people stay through the halftime show, which got a lot better this year when Bruno Mars showed up, though I think Lady Gaga provided the top entertainment value!