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  • Adrian Matejka (bio)

I split any bit of sunlight in that land of sweaty tees & patriotic wristbands, escalating to the rim’s mezzanine like every player on that court did

at the mall on weekends. Every bit of tangled shine around my neck, a hypotenuse of intention: highlights are the only lights in this low-rise space of sneaker

& elbow. The only time I dunked, the court exploded like a party hearing “The Show” for the first time. & when the smoke cleared, I was as tight as a sweaty

headband on the rim, talking smack to the other 9 & to their 9 mamas. Then the slipping. Then the next 2 months left-handing jumpers, blurry scribbles

on my cast, the ball rotating as insistently as the back-spinning apple that split Galileo’s wig. [End Page 45]

Adrian Matejka

Adrian Matejka is the author of The Devil’s Garden (2003), Mixology (2009), which was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series, and The Big Smoke (2013). He teaches at Indiana University in Bloomington.

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