MIDNIGHT LAZARUSES
we were married
to
concrete:
playgrounds, blacktops
where seven days,
nights
a ball would drop
and like that
bodies would complete
shadows
and a game would be
found
—from Rattle #60, Summer 2018
Tribute to Athlete Poets
__________
Chaun Ballard: “Basketball broadened my world, my experiences. Because of it, I had the opportunity to attend university as the first child in my immediate family. Basketball protected me from the streets, in a city that often swallowed its young. There was a time when I thought reaching the age of 25 was an accomplishment. Today, I know it is. I am 37 now—I like to believe I write for the gone: those who live on through us, and for those voices who go on unheard.” (web)
