Buddy!
C'mon
O
ver
the free throw tosser
is the author of an arc
wayward or not he never knows what
comes off his fingers, not often, not for long...
17 in a row once maybe, something like that
in the Catastrophe Basketball Free Throw League of New Orleans
we played a Stanza of 10 shots, best of 7 stanzas
wins, if you hit your 10th shot its Dinero Diez!
Keep the line till you miss
the free throw tosser aspires
to the arc with empty
lungs just exhale, softly
sometimes it matters
sometimes not
way off
for some sooner never comes
or sooner seemed to be arriving
exciting, and intimating fraternity
only to waver and disappear
later always comes after sooner
keeps coming at you much later
comes after
after you stand on the beach
holding a rock
with questions
make a free throw tosser
miss
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cradles
fondles
caresses
even
spins
crouches
dips
empties
lifts
one-thing-now?
and it feels unfamiliar
leaving your hands
and that is wrong
not to know
its a ride you are on
where, for half a second
pai ni kap
where you go -
its swish is a mystery
you don't know how it happened
it feels like luck
for the moments, related, extended
aided and abetted by your partner
who takes pride in catching the karoms
one motion soft accurate outlet pass
back to your hands don't have to move
the ball feels right and shepherded so
the net hardly ripples
there's a rhythm
its so transient though
the self kills it
his free throw, the tosser thinks, is like a son
he doesn't spend enough time with
the son wishes it were a dog and dad
loved nothing better than to throw the ball
but he's a boy in 7th grade at a tough new school
where out in the yard aerosol cans
are sprayed into bags and breathed
in - son, son, the tosser says, poised
to lift and aim -
the free throw tosser
once had long supple fingers
they are still all there
but long gone now
last week I tried to imagine
rebellion to the screw
I turn, tedium has
a hypnotic quality
turn is not good in free throw -
I am often thinking about Rick Barry
90%, underhanded
I can see what that toss has going for it
it turns the free throw into a turn
of the wrists, not an inch of extra arc
so much that it is no fun
now I liked this free throw when the Warriors won
well enough, I guess, but it reminds me of
a little poodle of a free-throw
I like the variation that comes
we honor a man who played guard for the New York Knicks
for a short time in 1975, by calling a very high arc shot
kind of unreal when it goes in
I think its the rhyme with rainbow
who among us does not pull
for a man named Wingo
Purvis Short, his shots went way way up
Today I put a milk crate on the line and stood on it
I'm thinking this is what being 7'5" looks like
wow
Mr Carroll would end practice
by putting you on the line
if you missed, everybody ran
laps and laps and laps
think about that I clanged it
my mind was filled
with apprehension and want
ing you can't do that
the rim is ten feet high
the backboard was painted by Joseph Albers and Jasper Johns
I wince a little what the sun has done to their work
what can I do though, backboards go outside
the line is 15 feet from the rim
there's a steeply pitched roof under the net
padded with cushions, it tends to send the ball
right back to me, which i appreciate
though I miss the board work my partner did
and I did for him, this is not a game, it is play
all about the free throw tosser
who we can say is always opposed
by the self same self makes a shot
misses a shot, my shot has not
been taken enough, I think
for every one is different but that every one
is released with doubt, some doubts
briefer that others, much briefer
form, and picture
I love extending my arms but
I don't think that's how it is done -
a complex movement
easy to vary, not good but the
sweetest arcs, purest swish
comes off this way
tonight I think I found my
free throw, a substantial dip of the knees
to rise up from, so the arms don't lift
so much, the legs do it and the motion
feels more repeatable and self contained
all free throws are self contained
I wish I knew how not to think
which is impossible for me while keeping a tally
1-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 (75% I'm thinking)
3-5...
always thinking
true or false:
for she is above all competent and steady, yes!
the high percentage free throw tosser is known
to excel in foxholes and elective offices,
a vestige of innocence resides
in the free throws acquaintenship with moment
a deep but narrow or meta stable
static moment given to visualize
eyes to arms, hands to ball
who am I? Am I the Man?
First to Tie, 2nd to Win
All good stories begin and end
in cords we ripple
I am a lifetime 58%
although last night I made 37 of 50
although Tally keeping in the CBFTLoNO isn't strictly mathematical
Are You Straight Enough to Play the Game with Me?
in the Catastrophe Basketball Free-Throw League of New Orleans
To stand straight on the line and caress a beautiful
Sphere you will softly let fly the finest Rainbow
You can find
For the Hoop where the Net rests so Still
Just to congratulate your skill
Swish
So are you straight enough to play the game with me
Animated by 92 natural elements of the story around here
Many times washed and scrubbed by the good young hands of Kyle Molere
A boy who lost all his own in New Orleans East
John Cage inspired, compounded with Armour All for Tires
All we aim for around here is to stay behind the Charity Stripe
and Revere these uniquely satisfying aesthetic objects
of an Immense Tragedy
To form and fashion these arcs we may call our own
A call "to quiet and sober the mind"