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      July 25, 2018Elison AlcovendazWhat Are You Doing Now?

      Where did you play college ball
      he asks with the voice
      of someone you once knew
      back in high school
      where you were the star
      athlete, and he was someone else.
      I didn’t, you should say,
      but he’s standing there waiting
      for your co-worker to bring up his car
      in his tailored suit taller
      than should be possible
      he was such a nobody before,
      from what you remember.
      UCLA, you say, injury
      you know, feigning
      a grimace and a tender leg
      while you cover the hole
      in your sleeve with your hand.
      He nods the way they always nod,
      slow and sure,
      lips pursed as though swallowing
      the words he wanted to say
      back then.
      Then he asks the question
      and for some reason
      maybe the shine of his watch
      or the shine of his shoes
      you can’t remember the usual story
      and instead hear the crowd
      chanting his name
      and the gold being laid
      around his neck.
      He didn’t mean to do this,
      you understand.
      You understand
      there is always
      something to lose,
      and so you smile
      nod
      apologize
      and ask
      what was your name again?

      from #60 - Summer 2018

      Elison Alcovendaz

      “‘You’ll be the first Filipino in the NBA,’ people wrote in my yearbook. At eighteen, I was offered a spot on a pro basketball team that I stupidly turned down. Now, I’m almost 40 with nothing to show for my basketball skills other than a torn achilles and boxes filled with trophies I can’t, for some reason, get rid of. This is a poem about conversations I have with people who knew me from my basketball playing days.”