every writer has a defining moment:
James Joyce
J.D. Salinger
Arthur Miller
e.e.cummings.

and some writers so define the world
they are known by a single name:
Shakespeare
Dante
Milton.

my day in the literary sun came when I was a sportswriter
Howard Cossell, a giant in the sports media
only because he stood amongst pygmies
refuses to answer my question about
professional football players who beat their wives.

Cossell is so angry he flees the press conference
closely followed by “jock sniffing” sportswriters
and Monday Night Football freaks.

he puffs on a cigar as big as his ego
and as he is helped in his black limousine
points his finger and yells at me.
“Young man, you are the most obnoxious sportswriter
I have even met.”

having no more journalistic honors
that could be greater than the obnoxious one’s
I resign from the paper the next day
go to Flynn’s Silver Dollar Café
and buy my last round for the reporters and pressmen
as I bask in the glow of Cossell’s great tribute
A.J. Liebling never had it so good.