BASKERVILLE HOLMES

My eighth-grade year, my father moved us
to Memphis where ripped trash bags decorated lawns
and beer cans bloomed installation art. 

Under the covers at night, I clutched a transistor
to my ear to follow high school basketball games.
Westwood’s power forward Baskerville Holmes,
the phenom at six foot seven pulled down boards,
shot over defenders, left heartache in his wake.

A small boy who dreamed of being a point guard,
I lived for those high-drama duels, prayed Holmes
made every jumper, sank every free throw.
Maybe he’d become the god my father never was,
the answer to all my bullies.

Dave Malone is a poet and screenwriter from the Missouri Ozarks. His latest poetry volumes are the full-length collection When a Man Loves a Woman (Spartan Press) and the chapbook Forsythia Overnight (Rockwood Press). His current film project is the short, Tennyson’s Maud. He occasionally reads poems on TikTok @poetmalone.