Simmering

There was always a guy with freakish strength

generally wiry

happy to stay in the background

an easy wallflower

he avoided trouble

dodged first and second glances

but the strength, simmering steel

was always there

utterly disproportionate to his frame

 

bigger guys bounced off him on pitches

arm wrestles were won smoothly

and without expression

to sighs and disbelief

even deep cuts and gashes never phased him

I didn't know what to put it down to

this defiance of natural laws

 

always so quiet, so placid

I never knew where the strength came from

until years later

when I learned

that the placid

have more rage than anyone