Giving and Taking
—based on United We Stand by Gene Okok
Beyond the lights and hype,
before the purse and prize,
there is the spartan gym—
dim and grimy, grim, bereft
of artifice and glamour.
Here, there awaits only
pushups, situps, work
inside the ropes; outside
the ropes, more work:
bags and pads, strength,
cardio, speed, flexibility,
reflexes. React—counter
and land, stick, move,
take, dodge, duck. I have
not been in such spaces
specifically. I have not
been in a boxing club
specifically, but I know
such spaces generally
and well: the adrenaline
and sweat, shit and piss,
a little blood always
somewhere there, and
testosterone generating still
more testosterone. Back then,
the boxing gym was mostly
a place for men, or a place
for boys to act like men:
practice makes perfect; fake it
till you make it, etc. Often,
the gym was a way out.
To get somewhere, some
boys had to fight somewhere—
home or abroad, home
and abroad, fight. Often
we speak of the violence
at the club—the consent
to violence. We do not talk
as much about the love there,
always there, in fact. It is
hard to explain the drive
to punch one of your boys,
someone you love, hard.
Punch them in the jaw,
nose, gut, chin, ribs.
It is hard to explain
what it’s like to need
someone to help you
know how strong you can be,
what it’s like to try to be
amazing, to want your boy
to be amazing too, so
you have to hurt them. I have
not been in such spaces
specifically. I have had to
do my fighting elsewhere—
to punch real hard, to take
a punch, real hard—blood
on my hands, blood
in my mouth, bruises,
blooming all over my body,
and this is what I can tell you
of giving and taking:
if you find your choices are
punch or be punched, and
only those, it is worthwhile
to know which one helps you
the most, which one hurts
you the most.
Michael Kleber-Diggsis a poet, essayist, and literary critic. He is the author of My Weight in Water, a memoir about his complicated relationship with lap swimming (forthcoming, 2026). Michael’s debut poetry collection, Worldly Things, was published by Milkweed Editions in 2021. His poems and essays often explore themes of intimacy, community, empathy, and grace, practices he believes are simultaneously distinct and interdependent. Michael is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Literature, and he teaches creative writing through the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and at colleges and universities in the Twin Cities.