Basketball by Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr

Basketball

by Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr.

Aminatta Sumah From 1992- 2010 Was the best there ever was A breadwinner She averaged 2 victories in her lifetime, I’m living proof She rebounded from high blood pressure and diabetes To go on and win the respect of those she cared for

A Master of the game clock While wearing the blue and white, She averaged 15 assists to the elderly in their last minutes as players on this earth And while wearing the hug and the smile She averaged even more to hurt tummies, bad days, and puberty

She was the strongest coach I ever had, A mother

In her last days She laid on her hospital bed Smiling, Looked onto her children as if “victory” Was stamped on our foreheads, because She knew we would champion her after She lost this fight I sat, on the sidelines of her bedframe, Eyelids peeled to the ceiling Hoping, God would descend And teach me the skills to assist from this bench, Her eyes, quenched from the well that had formed in mine

So She smiled

And the IV sobbed for her.

A hospital couldn’t cure like the basketball court did So I left,

Check ball

Mama, I taught your daughter how to dribble once Told her, the way a basketball splashes against the asphalt Could keep tears from doing the same. And as long as we kept our heads up Nothing could steal from us again

But Ma, Life plays games Little sisters just aren’t Conditioned to compete in, And neither am I But when I play, its like I found the cure to cancer In an orange pill So I inject the ball into the sky Wishing, its sudden swishing Will heal both you and I

I must shoot Every chance I get I shoot Every chance to Win The game Life didn’t give you the chance to—

You’re the reason why I love layups You were Gentle and Swift You’re the reason why I love Fast breaks You were Pressure but a Gift You are why I refuse to ever have the ball stolen from me Life, stole you from me And I’ll keep drawing fouls in the paint If it means, every shot, I hit, brings me closer to the win To you, until victory is stamped on my forehead

When we lost, You

On that hospital bed It seemed like running Suicides Was the only way out of the game.

The score has been Cancer—1 My sister and I–Zero But I refuse To lose anymore

I often wondered why people Always got so passionate arguing over scores:

I know now, That when you can’t escape the game life plays— Every point, every parent Counts.