Gene McCormick- A Poem

Arm Wrestling Championship
Of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Two beefy guys holding hands,
grunting, grimacing,
sit facing one another
on the VFW center stage,
contesting the Pipefitters Local Union 344
arm wrestling championship.

Evenly matched, locked in combat,
neither man can pin the other’s arm
to the table, nobody has an advantage
until a bone snaps.

Force, not will, has been compromised
as the defeated slumps from the stage
holding a forearm while the victor’s
hammy arms hoist his trophy,
a case of Miller Genuine Draft,
to the plaudits of a sparse crowd.
I wanna donate this to the family
of my opponent, says Big Ed.



Brief bio: Gene McCormick is a former world welterweight boxing champion, fighting under the name Mickey Cormicky, maybe. He lives in a converted in-ground swimming pool in Wayne, Illinois, where he teaches boxing to the blind ("First, you chain them together at the waist..."), maybe.