Tennis

On a blind date,
This new cute guy asks me
“Why do you play tennis?”
He crinkles his nose in disgust.
“That’s such an uppity sport.”
I think of all the possible things I could say to him.
That I started playing because my seventh grade math teacher,
Who I had an inscrutable crush on,
Played tennis and when he asked if any of us did,
I eagerly shoved my hand in the air,
Saying yes.
And then to prove it,
I started playing.
That, as a fourteen-year-old girl,
Tennis camp was where all the cute senior boys were.
That tennis is the only thing my dad and I
Have in common
Besides our looks and hidden tempers.
That yes, it’s an uppity sport
For rich snobs
But that I go to a college that I could never afford without
My hefty scholarship
And heaven forbid I let them know I’m a scholarship student
So I play tennis to fit in.
That I get out more frustration in one bad game of tennis
Than I do in 20 average, angsty poems.
I think of all the reasons,
But,
It only being our first date,
I just shrug my shoulders and say,
“I dunno.
It’s fun,
I guess.”