I think a lot
about Kenny “Sky” Walker
who rocked the cradle
in the 1989 dunk contest
it fizzled without
much meaning
but it mattered to me
in 2017 I got dumped in a swamp
I think I wasn’t
what I seemed
I tried to remember
I got eaten alive
by mosquitos in 1989
having smashed my stomach
into a wheelbarrow handle
I fell asleep in the grass
sucking wind
everything in the ground
all around
my natal chart
makes a lot of sense to me
I can’t even imagine seeming
like I’m what I’m like
I think I am
you have to get to know me
in 1989 camping
at Mt. Cardigan
the firetower presiding
over the valley road
a dog chased me a quarter mile
across the surface
of the dear planet
I loved forever in fear
in the aftermath
I smashed my walking stick
on a rock in a fit of rage
sweet rage
what else did I bury
my sweet love
my unique life
the whole history of dunks
that year
that season
in February
I recorded the contest
on a VHS tape
Shawn Kemp should have won
I never know where
a story is going
in 1989 I was seven
I had a crush on a girl
I did not really exactly
know I existed
I found out I needed glasses
and got glasses and then
I lost the glasses
I squinted in dreams
I saw murderers
breaking into my house
I saw the earthquake in California
on tv during the World Series
the bridge collapsing
and fires spreading
we had a book of photos
of the Yellowstone fires of ‘88
in my living room
in 1989 everything pointed
to death and destruction
I was small and doomed
I had been alive seven years
I prayed wordlessly to the one
true God the insane
powerful God in whom
I do not remember
ever believing I prayed
the prayers were not words
but they were
words were
what I had
for I was
pragmatic
and so very afraid.
