81

He catches it in the high post with
Parish at his back and turns at
The waist jerking his gigantic
Gaunt frame and holding it like
It is fighting from his hands his
Arms a circle and he cranes his
Neck back to fake Parish and lose
Him and strides huge across the
Foul line in two articulations and
With a rocking motion leaps from
His left leg and cradles the ball
From low into his hyperextended
Hand and wheels his arm up into
The air away from the basket and
It trails out there as in orbit only to
Make a collosal mechanical pass
Wheeling back up as the other nine
Fall away into a yellow darkness.
His joistlike arm reaching its apex
Is as a spoke and his hand the vessel
And at the moment of release a
Transcendence rules and his grand
Skeletal structure dies out of the
Air and there is only mute trajectory.

The ball describes its arc through
Space and duration and it revolves
Outside of momentum and it falls
As in the track of a predetermined
Alignment into the fastness of the
Hoop and the net shivers up and
Falls, its fibres like a tissue of light.

80

They stood in the intersection of
Three streets in black uniforms and
Helmets with resin visors and
Acetate riot shields fixed in line,
Maintaining as they had been told
A static position of assertion in
The centre of the empty junction.
A change of atmosphere occurred;
The front lines began to step back
And to accelerate and break form
And calls came out of the dark
That sounded like dogs and there
Was a precipitate increase in volume
That became a mass of voices.
Projectiles broke into the ranks,
Half bricks and bottles, and then
The darkness began to relinquish
Quick forms of masked and hooded
Men in black and grey and white
In a mass, in excess of a hundred,
At full sprint and howling for
Culmination and launching missiles.
The two bodies collided and broke
With the force of an explosion and
There was fire over the rooftops.

79

He held the hose for what it was:
A live conduit. The waters around his
Feet rippled and frayed in the heat
Coming off the building, seeming to
Boil across the pavement and to
Transubstantiate into the heaving air.
The hose was buckling behind him
And a thundering cord of whiteness
Described a parabola into the flames.
He seemed lifted with its power,
A lesser will subsumed and made
Again in a din of massive combustion
And straining, pale hydraulics.
A sudden wind drew the fire up out of
The building and it made fugitive
Shapes in the black and resolved. The
Fire fighter crouched low into the black
Smoke and fastened to his aperture.

78

He got up strangely from the

Instrument and sat at the bar

And poured himself a double of

Augusta Dry ten year old and he

Sat with it in his hand letting

It swill and paint the glass sides

Thin amber and he put it back

Quickly coughing and swore and

Laughed and poured one more.

He looked at it for a while in

The half-light and the rain

Persisting the past hour made a

Sound like trees in wind as it

Swept the roof and he sat an

Hour more until the door grew

Darker and drank the bottle up

And the rain and wind held out.

He was swaying in the trees in

Their pale branches and singing

And then he was on the floor

Holding onto the stool laughing

As the bar swung like a carousel.

77

Washington stood at center court

And Kunnert was bleeding from

The nose and another holding him

And he stood above them both

On the balls of his feet. He was a

Good six foot eight and reinforced

And girdled with muscle and as

Tomjanovic ran from backcourt

To break it up he ran full into the

Arm of Washington delivering a

Roundhouse. His motion was

Arrested completely and he fell
To the floor a dead weight and the

Report was heard ten rows up

In the stands drawing all into

The quiet wake of its concussion.

Jabbar said afterwards it was like a

Watermelon hit the floor and broke.

They stood Tomjanovic up and he

Tried to get at Washington and he

Swore but he fell back on them

Tasting his own spinal lubricant

Leak into his wrecked mouth and in

The locker room he blacked out.

They found his skull was detached,

The front all lapsed and slid away

In three places like facets of an egg,

And they called for an ambulance.

76

I was inside the vehicle and

My seatbelt on and the beams

Projected into dim water like

Half a bridge and motes of

Silt were rushing in the light

And I unfastened my seatbelt

And my arm caught in it as

I tried to free myself and my

Lungs were burning and I got

The door open and pulled him

Out in the dark water a ragdoll

And fought in the obscure force

Of its uniform pressure kicking

And dragging the body through

It like fires burning burning I

Tussled in flame livid and blue

And broke into night air and a

Matrix of headlights and cries

And I cried and gasped the air.

They pulled us up the bank and

His body was a whitened mass in

The mud and I struggled inside

My dress ripping it to get it off

And heaved and barked the black

Water from my lungs and I sobbed.

Within the water shone the car like

A pale carriage crossing over.

75

John came down the staircase

And stood at the foot of it

Dazed and looking around the

Kitchen golden in his hair and

At the outline of his forearms.

I was eating corn flakes and

There was cool air at the sill

Pushing the flakes like boats and

John said good morning Dew.

His face was burnt and his hair

Messed yellow and he smiled.

The rye I could see out the

Window of the back wall was

Sawing down the wind and

It was shivering like weeds in a

Scrappy verge against the sky.

I swallowed a pap of corn and

Said when'd you and pa get in

And he said late when you're

Done come out in the yard kid.

He made a darkness at the door.

74

He played a chord of D minor

With the seventh and let the

Keys go and the articulations

Inside rejoined their first parts

And the sense sound was yet in

The air and the fine glasses over

The bar rattled in sympathetic

Unison as he set the device in

Motion again and augmented

The fifth and allowed a flourish to

Ease chromatically from his right

And as the cadence fell and the

Wood of the harpsichord spoke in

A century for which it had been

Until this moment dark and mute.

He stopped and cracked his knuckles.

A light rain was still falling outside

And he began to play again but

Softly and as if careful not to wake

Anything, as if it were night music.

The lighter and cigarillos and his

Wallet and keys and watch and his

Rings and two coins in his pocket

Were suddenly of large gravity

And he felt dull and as half-asleep.

He came out, and back into the bar,

And for a while all seemed augmented.

73

I was eating cereal when I

Heard a concussion above me

And turning in my seat I

Saw a blackbird roll down the

Conservatory roof jerking and

The wing caught under the

Body was impeding its fall.

It came down irregular and

Quickly and hit the gutter and

Fell extended in mock flight,

And its neck broke as it met

The concrete paving. I sat

And finished my cereal and I

Drank a glass of orange juice

And went out to look where it

Had come down. It was limp

And the eyes hollow and wind

And the dusk teased feathers

From its open neck and I saw

It was this year's young, dead.

I lifted its body and loose head

From the ground and carried it

Still warm and in spasm over

The ditch out back and I laid

It among nettles and dry weed

And blackberry and I left it out

There in a dimming atmosphere.

72

He came from the right

Skirting his man and the

Lane was open so he put

His head down and turned

The corner and as he came

Rearing into the air above

The paint Grant and Jordan

Went up like red sentinels

And his slight form hove

Into their uprising and he

Crammed it into the net

At his far extent and fell

Into their shoulders and it

Was on their faces as they

Fell in the elapsing seconds

How they had been abused.