BASKETBALL POEMS
1. Hoop
Dreams
Come on,
Granddaddy, he calls, age seven,
Dribbling the
ball on the deck,
Play some
D.
Shoulders that
have seen better days
Struggle to get
hands up on defense.
I no longer
conspire to let him win.
He breezes by
for a lay-up,
A moment I want
to think
He will recall
when his sons and grandsons,
Also North
Carolina boys,
Begin to bounce
a ball.
2.
Playoff Game
Philip plays in
the late game tonight.
We climb the
stairs to the gym
Against the flow
of those leaving,
Parents who had
cheered earnestly
Or graded
papers,
Half of them
happy, half not,
An index, an
approval rating
Of life at a
given moment
Higher than
some, I guess.
An hour later we
emerge
Wearing our
gladness,
A day to be
seized,
Cautiously:
Friday they play
against a higher seed.
3. Hoops
Haiku
Waiting for the
game:
College kids
with new cell ’phones:
Lanterns in the
dusk.
“Hoop Dreams” appeared as
part of “November Songs” in
Homestead Review, Spring-Summer 2008; “Hoops Haiku” appeared in Aethlon,
Spring 2007.
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