by Jack Bedell
My son came into our room last night wanting to know what fight I’d change if I could rewrite the result. It was tough not to rattle off a list of wrongs I dreamed of making right when I was a kid, or of heroes I’d love to put back on their feet. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that any change I gave him might change too much. If I gave Foreman the win in Zaire, would we have lost Ali’s voice from then on? Or what about keeping Douglas down for that long count against Tyson? Would that’ve ruined Tyson’s chance to redeem his life later? So I told him I’d let Frazier land the big left he missed in round one of his first fight with Foreman. If that punch caught chin instead of whiskers, maybe Foreman could’ve found God earlier. Or maybe he would’ve been ready for Ali when he finally got him. Who knows, but maybe Frazier would’ve gone on to be the champion he deserved to be if that hook found its target. I do know I would’ve gone to bed a lot happier that night if it did, and that might be enough of a reason, right there.
Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in HAD, Heavy Feather, Pidgeonholes, The Shore, Moist, Okay Donkey, EcoTheo, The Hopper, Terrain, and other journals. His work has also been selected for inclusion in Best Microfiction and Best Spiritual Literature. His latest collection is Ghost Forest(Mercer University Press, 2024). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Revision”? “Revision” is part of a series of micro CNF essays about boxing I began writing last year. Before my middle son, Sam, left for college, he got into the habit of bringing his laptop into our bedroom before bedtime to ask about boxing matches I remembered watching when I was a kid. As we would talk, he’d look up the fights on YouTube to see if any were posted. If he found one, we’d watch it together, and I’d tell him stories about watching fights like this live with his grandfather. These times spent with my son brought up so many great memories of watching matches with my father that I really wanted to document as many of them as I could.
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Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
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Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again March 15, 2025. Submit here.
01/13 • Edward Thomas-Herrera
01/20 • Zero Laforga
01/27 • Jack Bedell
02/03 • TBD
02/10 • Gaurav Bhalla
02/17 • Callie Dean
02/24 • TBD