At Basketball

Basketball stands for war or battle.

That's why I think about the players'

personalities, in my foxhole or squad.

Danny and Ben are fast and smart. Dan

especially can pass making him master

and commander. To defeat them as we did

is very satisfying. Ben's five year old son

is intelligent but distant. Disdains to answer

my question Why are you you?

                                            But I'm not here

to catalogue the men's personalities.

I like them. But each of us has moved on

many times, when _______ suddenly died

the games went on with hardly a mention

and his name has since been forgotten.

But even this, absolute mortality

of not just our bodies but our names

and souls is not what I came

to talk about. Yesterday, between games,

I asked Joe how Molly his daughter likes

the high school. He mounted an impassioned

defense of reading as the indispensable skill

when I suggested math, the scientific method

and history are essential too.

                                          Also between games

Bob diffidently asked why my kids are bald.

I was moved by the care he took to satisfy

his curiosity, concerned the subject might be

difficult. He's a political science teacher so

I took the opportunity to ask What ails

the republic? Of course I answered myself

wanting mostly to hear myself talk about Iraq

and how empire is self-correcting. For once I was amusing

I thought, treating the subject with a light touch

heretofore lacking.

But none of this is what I came to say.

A new guy, very big and strong, a

bulldozer under the boards with a good

outside shot if needed got into a dispute

with the other Bob who likes to tell people

what to do sometimes, about an offensive

foul Bob called which we almost never do.

The new guy said If you can't take it don't

play under the boards which is what I say

when I'm pissed and don't give a s**t.

Bob said You've been pushing and shoving me

all day. I said He doesn't want to be

pushed and shoved which got a wry

smile out of Danny as I put the ball in play.