Boudin-banner-1

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor Chris Lowe __________ The launch of this Boudin mini-issue focusing on football was supposed to coincide with the start of football season. That was the plan when I conceived of the mini-issue at last year’s AWP conference in San Antonio (way back in the early days…

Read More

Two Poems

At Toomer’s Corner, the Morning After the Iron Bowl (2019) In memory of Pat Sullivan Raye Hendrix __________ An autumn sun, expected, rises;steals darkness from between the stars to illuminate the streets and avenues—College and Magnolia brilliant white with billowing paper, a southern substitutefor snow: live oaks cloaked from trunk…

Read More

The Diehards

The Diehards Matthew Kenerly __________ San Jose State Spartans (3-8, 2-5 Mountain West) vs. Fresno State Bulldogs (1-10, 0-7 MW) November 26, 2016—Bulldog Stadium (41,031)—Fresno, California—12:30 PM PT Nothing lasts forever, not even unparalleled humiliation. That such embarrassments on occasion come to an end under the threat of a late…

Read More

Consider the Pass Rusher

Consider the Pass Rusher Terry Horstman __________ 2007 NFL Season—Week One—Atlanta at Minnesota—Vikings lead 24-3—Falcons have the ball, 1st & 10 at the Vikings’ 23 with one second left in the 4th quarter Consider the pass rusher. A pass rusher’s prowess is determined almost entirely by the one number that…

Read More

Mister Average

Mister Average or, A Properly Forged Sword Eric P. Mueller __________ Silence, rare on the football field, usually occurs with gasps, like after the hardest collisions, or, in a moments of loss when the team scores, a player is injured, or you lose the game. That’s probably why my silence…

Read More

Mascot

Mascot Beth McMurray __________ My mom had postpartum depression. Not the baby blues type, but the type where she took off and left and went back to Tennessee, to the parts where trailer trash fit right in, leaving my dad and me living in a house atop a liquor store…

Read More

Four Fables

An Ekphrastic Fable about Construction Workers’ Breakless 8 Hour Effort to Remove a Racist Owner For Alaina Getzenberg, Charlotte Observer Reporter Alex Wells Shapiro __________ Strapped under the pits, bronzed Jerry Richardson flies away, sloppily offering a football by the nose to passerbys pausing at the spectacle like Jesus’s limp…

Read More

Concussion

Concussion Zachary Hughes __________ The weight sits just above, just behind my eyes, Not throbbing or jabbing at me sharply— It just pulls—makes my eyes and head want to sink down— If someone told you to hit your head against the wall over and over, Would you do it? What…

Read More

With the Intent

With the Intent Pablo Piñero Stillmann __________ Things were dicey between her & the boyfriend. I was, I guess, “the other man,” even if I didn’t much feel like one. An evening after wasted hours of pre-season football, the woman took me to a party at her cousin’s place. I…

Read More

Tough Call

Tough Call Dave Malone __________ When my father reffed high school football games, he kept a mental log of epithets the fans yelled and shared the best over Schlitz with his newspaper buddies on our patio. It was mostly laughs except for the occasional telling after a six-pack of the…

Read More