Gus gave no explanation
for the man who had paused at our table.
"Berkeley has The Football Players," I continued
"because they beat Stanford two years in a row.
It was a long-ago prize.
Then-San Francisco Mayor James Phelan
purchased the sculpture.
Promised it
to the first school to win The Big Game
in two consecutive years."

[ Paths of Memory and Painting]
[when the foreground meets the background]