D.W. Rodgers Poet Free verse

For U Johnny

I read the title as
U - nite- as
three syllables - hard I

And I marveled that a female poet would 
write of U Johnny
and looked hurriedly down the page
hoping to read

Of your years leading the Colts
(who were in Baltimore then)
on gimpy knees and guts
when a player 
who had it
had balls
not a multi-million $dollar$ contract,
a side deal with a shoe company and....
and of the anger as you
were pushed from the color commentary 
by younger has-beens
and sank into muddle-aged oblivion

However, I misread the title
uni - tas
two syllables - soft I

An homage to Aiende and Chile 
a democratically elected socialist government
ousted by a CIA-backed military coup
to maintain control over strategic copper
but those days are over
and today the country
produces wonderful, cheap wine
and farmed fish


So I wrote this poem 
for U


 Written sometime in 1977-1978 on reading Dorthy Livesay's poem from Ice Age - which can be found  here 
http://envoifound.com/envoi-poetry-festival/poets-dead-or-alive/dorothy-livesay-october-12-1909-december-29-1996/

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Julia Ward July 22, 2015 at 7:43 AM What an interesting poem... I have put it in my FAVE section here. D.W. Rodgers July 22, 2015 at 12:03 PM Thanks Julia