“The Thing About Perfection,” by Don Colburn (Poetry ’92)

1992 poetry graduate Don Colburn recently had a poem featured in Hunger Mountain. Read an excerpt of “The Thing About Perfection” below:

The Thing About Perfection

The thing about perfection is
how nobody sees it coming
except those destined for disappointment.
A journeyman hurler, brush cut and big ears,
whose teammates call him Gooney Bird,
goes out-and-out untouchable one fall afternoon
and 63 years later his obit in the Times
has to say “perfect” a dozen ways.

He wasn’t scheduled to pitch that day,
Game 5, Dodgers and Yankees,
until he opened his locker and found
a warm-up ball in one of his cleats,
the manager’s unspoken code.

The best he could hope for
was to keep the Yanks in the game
against Jackie and Campy, Pee Wee
and Duke. But by the top of the fifth,
goose eggs accumulating, the crowd
began to murmur and buzz.
In the dugout they shunned him,
no chatter, no eye contact, nothing
to jinx what might be happening.

You can find the entire poem here: https://hungermtn.org/the-thing-about-perfection-don-colburn/