Go Towards The Klieg Light

Tom Gries,
a friend of my parents,
died in 1977.

After the service and eulogies
there was a good deal of milling around
at the reception back at Gries’ house.

This was sad but fairly uneventful
until it appeared that someone
had turned on a klieg light.

You couldn’t see it but what
the hell else could generate
such overpowering illumination?

And, by the way,
who brings such a thing
to a funeral?

All of the mourners
collectively closed
one eye and held

one hand up
to get a better look
but there was no klieg light.

*

Gries was a TV and movie director
(perhaps best known
for “Helter-Skelter.”)

Many people
he’d worked with
were there that day

and one of them was now
blinding all of us
by his mere presence.

His only had one acting credit
but was the most famous name in sports
for over a decade

and had the most
recognizable face
on the planet.

We were all dizzy and dazzled
by being at such close proximity to this
graceful incandescence in human form

who most people only saw
on TV, maybe in an airport
or from a distance in a sports arena.

I saw the light
and moved towards it.
It went by the name Muhammad Ali.

(How his opponents ever fought him
without wearing sunglasses
is beyond me.)