The Night Joe Louis Went 21-0 By Dropping Tami Mauriello

THE NIGHT JOE LOUIS WENT 21-0 BY DROPPING TAMI MAURIELLO / William Kloefkorn I'm babysitting the Garlow boy, who is asleep now, and the fight is over, Louis having disposed of the challenger at 2:09 of the opening round. Beside me on the porch swing sits the girl who knows more about my dreams than I do, she is in them that much, her face so delicate that one right cross, one smart left jab would surely for all time spoil it, and later I'll think how behind each great public event lies the small private one, how the small one, aware of the other, measures itself against the lofty clamor until it's the private one that truly matters, that endures, almost as if the mind becomes convinced that greatness is a ruse enabling smallness its breathing space, its down-home victory. Beside me my girl sits more than ever elegant and alert because Mauriello, on his seat against the ropes, didn't, and her lips when I kiss them taste sweetly of the blood that isn't there. This night 24 · The Missouri Review is like a pod about to burst, an Indian-summer moon I swear within arm's reach beyond the trellis, the thumping of the dynamos across town at the power plant as if the heartbeat of some God, almighty. Well, I knew all along the Bomber could not be whipped by a Bronx bartender. I knew, and my knowing adds a modicum of pride to the lust of the moment, Mauriello (I'll read this tomorrow evening in the Beacon) weeping in his dressing-room, my girl and I so filled with whatever weeping isn't we bite our tongues, I think to moderate the simple joy we'd otherwise indulge by crying. William Kloefkorn The Missouri Review · 25 ...