Trippel Drive

I met two of my old best friends
with a pair of binoculars.

I saw one kid throw a dirt clod
at another kid. I put the binoculars

away and eventually I was standing
below them at the base of a dirt mound.

The classic stand off
of boyhood:

Two new kids
in the neighborhood;

the other,
staking claim to his territory.

The day was shadowless
with a light dust in the breeze.

I saw the one kids eye twitch
so I quickly grabbed a 2X4

and began to run full-speed at him.

Then, I planted the end of the 2X4 into
the ground and pole-vaulted

over a huge hole in the earth
from which the dirt mound

had been displaced.

They stood with terror and excitement
as I flailed over the abyss

screaming like a blood thirsty eagle.

Everything went by in slow-motion,
the sounds of an old Bruce Lee film filled the air

and the moment my feet hit the ground,
we were friends for life.