Former Performance Artist

By Fishboy

On Art Guards

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At 21

I was a young performance artist and

Around I’d run with art school dudes

And we would

Spend our days perfecting public pieces

We would

Spend our nights

Acting rude

We’d throw food fights

Make a mess

All while dressed up as chefs

A single week we tried our best

To only speak in adjectives

Intentions often misunderstood

We did it 'cause we knew that we could

Performance 209

Would be our grande finale

On the right foul line

Of a baseball game

Our most ambitious piece

It took days of preparation

That October eve

We created the wave

A lost footnote in history

A staple of the MLB

Created by my friends and me

We were only 23

But the wave it long outlasted us

Now we don't talk all that much

We all grew up and all lost touch

Never speak a mention of

The credit

But forget it we’re good

We did it cause we knew that we could

Now I’m a 53

Small business owner

My kids don’t believe me

Because I’ve got no proof

The oldest, seventeen

Wants to be a light technician

Takes more pictures weekly

Than I have of my youth

And I often think about the days

Of interrupting baseball games

And wonder if I’d be the same

If I’d documented everything

Like kids who come into the store

Taking photos when they're bored

I pick myself up off the floor

Acknowledge I created for

Feeling of creating what’s good

I did it cause I knew that I could