For Hope Reichbach

Posted on | May 3, 2011 | No Comments

For Hope Reichbach

By her trainer-

David Lawrence

HOPE AT GLEASON’S GYM

Everyone at the gym is telling me that they are sorry that Hope is dead.

They are paying their respects to me as if I am the father.

I know her father.

I am only her trainer.

I am just another tourist in the country of friends’ tombstones.

John Douglas wishes that Hope ducked like he taught her when

Death entered the ring.

Lennox Blackmoore asks me, “Is that little girl of yours dead?”

Hector Roca, who trained me and world champions,

Says, “It’s so sad. She’s like family.”

Bruce Silverglade says that she was part of Gleason’s gym,

A piece of its history.

She came here at twelve,

One of the early surge of female boxers.

I thought she was too proper to train with me,

Too well-brought up,

Somehow too mature for her age.

She kept coming back for ten years between charity trips

And colleges,

Like the gym had something to offer her,

Some underbelly of life that she wanted to understand

Like a shark stalking dolphins.

You are not one of the world champions who trained here.

You were just another girl who made it seem like the world

Was not such a lost, dangerous place

And that grace could flit like Tinker Bell above the croc,

The uppercuts and Captain Hooks in Never land.

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