Glory

 I’ve waited my whole life for this. It’s the state championship game and we are down by one point. I dribble past the midcourt line while the crowd is counting down the seconds.

“Five! Four!”

Sweat drips in my eye but I can still see Devon open and waving for the pass. He’s supposed to take the last shot, but he doesn’t understand. This is my moment. I can already see that championship ring on my finger.

“Three! Two!”

This is it. I jab step and drive, successfully getting around the defender. With a victorious smirk on my face, I jump in the air, raise my elbow, and release at the top of my jump just like coach taught me. The ball begins its perfect arc towards the rim and I can feel the whole gym watching me in my moment of glory.

I miss.

Rising

Impeccable clouds peeled pale clean

Parading like aircraft-carriers filling charcoal sky

into the cracked eggshell , sink-hole of my heart,

healing, even as it wants what it wants, it beats on

Mists color faraway mountains ultramarine

These Utah mountains are the mountains of the summer

of my long trek east to Colorado

Wheeling alone across gold and camouflage hills, valleys

Plains, salt lands, up the thundering, massive Rockies

Carved brutally like an old dog’s teeth

Century-hammered islands of stone mirroring

my own solitude, my recent exile from regret and despair

This is my long voyage into the looming, beautiful emptiness

of the frustrated terrain of my pining soul

I am the perennial passenger, bearing the cargo of excruciating solitude and exquisite salvation

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Knockout

 “Mark wants to beat your ass,” Julian had warned me at the beginning of the school day.

More like Mark is going to beat my ass. Everyone knows I can’t fight. I sit in my seat wondering what will happen next.

Julian sees my worried face and says, “Relax, I got your back.”

The teacher walks out and I can feel Mark watching me.

Rachel whispers, “It’ll be really funny if you win,” into my ear from her seat beside me.

I turn and Mark is in my face. He pushes me and I instinctively push him back.

He hits me. Then I’m on the ground. Completely disoriented.

I wait for another punch to come but it never does. I finally regain my senses and get up to see Julian holding Mark with his arms pinned behind his back.

“If you are going to do something, do it now,” he says, struggling to hold him.

I hit Mark three times with my left hand then he elbows Julian and breaks free. He charges at me and before I can react his fist connects with my jaw.

I wake up with Rachel in my face.

“That was pretty funny too.”

1) Cracks in a Window

i’ve got bumps and bruises
scratches and scrapes
on most every inch of my skin
i’ve got a heart that cracks a bit
with every smile
because it can only take so much
but the cracks aren’t always so malicious
aren’t always seeking to destroy
the cracks
they’re a window
the tears and rips
let a little light in
when i need it most…

and think of it the least

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