The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , on April 26, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

Provocation

I had to challenge J- in such a way that didn’t amount to a threat. It’s entirely possible that he might even take a threat to the police in order to tie me up. I got his phone number from V- and texted him.

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , , , , , , , on April 18, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

The Duellists

Writing about my intention to harm another person physically is wandering onto the wrong side of the law in a way that may forever be used against me. However, art is a more important consideration, and the more risky a piece of art, the better.

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , , , , , , on April 7, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

The Wait

“I was so scared on my first amateur fight, I wanted to… I went downstairs, ‘I’m going to the store in the Bronx, New York, I’m going to the store…’ and I went downstairs. Man, I should get on this train and never come back, I wanted to get on the train and just leave, I was so scared. I didn’t want to fight anybody.”

Mike Tyson,

Tyson.

I once had an argument with a guy I used to bounce with.

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , , , , , on March 22, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

The Driving Force of a Crucially Diminished Intellect

Psychological injury is different to physical injury. It’s something that settles over a period of time, as whatever has occurred continues to resonate inside you. Caroming off your thoughts and feelings; creating persistent resonances that shape the thoughts and feelings that follow.

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , on March 5, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

Haunted By the Ghosts of High School Past

A friend of mine once said, ‘You can earn a billion dollars and discover a cure for cancer, but when you go back to a school reunion, you’re reduced to being the same little dickhead everybody thought you were when you were fifteen.’

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , , , on February 22, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

V was a year behind me in high school. She was one of the most attractive girls I knew, and I was on the inside track because she was a friend of my sister. When I asked, she was kind enough to accept my invitation to the high school dance. V- was a lot less than impressed, however, when I arrived at her house to collect her wearing a leopard-skin tuxedo.

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

I re-watched Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch recently. Like all ‘great’ works of art, you see different things every time you look at it, and it gives the appearance of changing as you do. In part, the film is concerned with ageing.

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , , , , , , , on January 27, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

I didn’t start playing sport because I was athletic, or because it was part of the school curriculum. I was angry; furiously angry, and I wanted to fight.

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , on January 19, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

The Antagonist

J- kicked the football towards the sun, leaping into the air as the ball sprang from his extended foot. It continued to climb as he returned to earth, his kicking leg gracefully extended as if it willed the ball forward on its ascent, its slow pendulous flight in sharp contrast to the chaotic spread of the players beneath it.

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The Duel

Posted in The Duel with tags , , , , , on January 10, 2024 by Jarrod Boyle

Dragged Backwards – Into The Past – By The Balls

You’re never ready for these sorts of things when they overtake you. It’s probably part of the reason they fester in your mind for so long afterwards.

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