Oscar De La Hoya vs. Fernando Vargas, 2002
by Alan Chazaro

  1. By then De La Hoya
  2. was golden, his pretty
  3. boy face plastered
  4. on posters inside
  5. liquor stores. A Vegas
  6. favorite, even posed
  7. for Playgirl, spreading
  8. himself nude between pages,
  9. a man with the confidence
  10. of planets between his legs.
  1. Not like Vargas
  2. the Aztec Warrior
  3. with Julio César Chávez in
  4. his corner, his bouts
  5. ending with blood
  6. speckled on red gloves.
  7. As an amateur he broke
  8. his hand while training
  9. so trained even harder
  10. until he broke his next
  11. opponent in under 56-
  12. seconds. He was the Mexican
  13. flag my brother pinned
  14. in our bedroom, the pound
  15. and hug we gave each other.
  16. I wanted my skin to gleam
  17. like his, to see him hoist
  18. gold above heads for us both.
  1. The fight concluded
  2. in controversy: a $100,000
  3. fine, 9-month
  4. suspension, and me
  5. left facedown.
Packingtown Review – Vol.9, Fall 2017

Alan Chazaro a high school teacher at the Oakland School for the Arts, a Lawrence Ferlinghetti Fellow at the University of San Francisco, and a June Jordan Poetry for the People alum at UC Berkeley. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in various journals including Iron Horse Review, Huizache, Borderlands, BOAAT, Juked, and The Acentos Review.

  1. Alan Chazaro
    Backyardboxingpoetry