19 Berrigan’s Sonnet

I’ve had a lot of heroes:
a absent father
mom’s boyfriends who i’ll never meet again
basketball players
there’s an old adage
“Don’t meet your heroes”
It’s always been an unfortunate truth
when dad didn’t take me to that game
when the father figure’s went away
when my favorite players wouldn’t give me the time of day
Until I met Andrew Wiltse
Ji-jitsu black belt, a revolutionary in the art
he treated me as if he’d known me for years
Andrew is a hero I met.