10k views, 2x BestPoetryCollection. A nothing from nowhere cast words to a world wide wind |
Prompt ▼ nailing it before they coined it as lebron's chase down block, i must have invented it in 1982 when randy snowden took off downcourt for a layup. i couldn't allow that. ten years older, 20 pounds heavier than in his prime, easy fodder for a wiry-strong, six-two white guy from iron mountain, michigan. in my old high school gym, on some wednesday night, playing men's league basketball, it happened. snowden liked to talk. i couldn't allow that bucket. from half court i took off, half of forty feet to gain to rim, not believing my luck, how much space he left between goal and player. i rose, as he lifted that spaulding from hand, and tomahawked it. my right hand expelled half of nine pounds of a ball's lone lung, palm-flattened by the arm-club strike. from over 10 feet up, it soared another fifteen higher, past the right backboard side, and 20 feet beyond, it arrived at the east wall where a u.s. banner hung. not an estimate, exact, if reported dimensions true: 10 feet across, 20 feet up it rose, adorned brick and mortar. i could have been an astronaut, the ball, capsule or missle, targeting that old red-white-and-blue. i feel the only witness. majestic: an orange orb spiking center. the flutter, rippling tremored an american emblem. velocity still reverbing, returns half a life later. glorious to behold, i felt alone, drifting down to hardwood from sudden perch, three feet above, like some cape-less superman. i was bothered to hear him, snowden whining in the ref’s ear: 'goal-tending', diminishing a moment, yet savor that bruised ego. and that's how you nail it don't think lebron has ever done that imagine Thor with his hammer, in 80s-style tank and shorts. if anyone wants to 'track down' snowden, if he still remembers, ask him why no ref whistle? thumb was so swollen, I couldn’t properly hold the ball to shoot. probably lost that game. the details might not be exact, but i did a little fact finding to aid memory: https://www.garagegymreviews.com/proper-hanging-of-the-american-flag-in-a-gym https://www.fotw.info/flags/us-size.html 4.28.22 |