our Tools:
bigwheels,
on which we rolled loudly, unashamed – locked plastic skidding in concrete spins
bmx bikes
on which we flew Evil-Kneival-like over rows of lying, trusting friends
our only “off-roading” was across plots of lawn, around bushes, and occasionally
over and across nefariously-placed containers of old milk
we believed our concrete was better than any forest floor
(of which we knew only from television)
our sidewalks, carport-driveways, and clearly-defined curbed streets
were secure, solid, unchanging, dependable
(whether running on them, rolling along them, or face-planting into them)
mornings would dusk:
“Shut up you kids! We work at night! Sleep during the day!”
- and we would run, silently, on reliable concrete
adrenaline comforting us against our fears of those units, which claimed to
contain humans
behind curtains always closed
nights would dawn:
“Game on!”
- basketball’s reliable rhythms called us to outdoor courts
less-than-reliable lights, covering boys, teens, and soon-to-be-men
as we escaped our confined corners
dribbling rhythms of high-pitched pings
a ball’s bouncing
its air moving, contracting and slamming against the inside of a sphere
from which it could not escape
basketball’s reliable rhythms punctuated our nights
drum-beats, drawing us out of “homes” we were happy to leave,
so that we could jostle for the joy of all-net (when our hoops had nets)
and the occasional praises of the almost-men
whose voices we heard more than our own fath…(do not make us say this
aloud)
yet even the courts, whose lights guided our late-night layups,
had dangers we did not see:
the mysterious white powder in one boy’s palm
“I stole it from my big sister. Smell it!”
And the boys who sniffed the powder in the point-guard’s palm
jumped and shouted for something other than three-pointers
the trusting (the un-lucky) sniffed and bounced off the court
and away from its promise of a better life
summer mornings, we woke late
and meandered zombie-like to our neighborhood pool
chlorine cannonballs in overcrowded water