Tony

 

My brother wore this red plastic hat when we would go 

Into the field to hoe weeds. Tony got it from our cousin. 

It was one of the few hand me downs that he didn’t get 

From me. Maybe that’s why he wore it even though 

It had the odor that plastic gets when soaked 

With sweat. We’d work side by side for hours and see 

Who could finish a row faster even though I was five 

Years older. It was never about fairness. He learned. 

Afterwards, as tired and hot as we were we’d play 

Basketball on our farm. We had no one else to test 

But each other. We couldn’t do lay-ups on our driveway 

Because of the brick abutment under the basket, so a good 

Jump shot was the difference. He forced me to play 

My best because his hustle matched my height advantage. 

Tony made me improve because he knew my game. 

For neither of us was it about fairness. I learned. 

We stopped moving side by side after he finished school. 

He worked, married, bought houses in Silicon Valley 

While I stayed a starving graduate student. Neither of us 

Has finished our row yet, but we both have come to know 

That it matters less who wins or finishes first as much 

As the lessons that we learned from those days of heat.