Flashback to the Smoking Gun

To the campus we could never afford, but crept through sometimes,
not on nothing nefarious, just hooping with a cousin 

& his friends, & some boys who been spoon fed
since they were twinkles in an iris. I recall like yesterday’s

refuse, the way them White boys watched you climb so high 
above their heads, just to shove you down at the peak.

I remember perfectly, the way you shot up in a flash, ready
to stand ground and then some. How I stopped you,

grabbed hold with each bit of conviction I could muster,
said, Homie, look around. These boys will sue us out our socks,

if luck is on our side. & There was too much fever in my vigilance 
perhaps, but I refused to lose you. Refused to read an article ending with officer;

narrative expurgating your name. I remember, through just rage, you heard the somber
wisdom in my words. You relented & we continued the game, shoulders heavy

with assorted chips. White boys grinned, still silver-ladened-lips, as you limped
to get back on defense. Remember what happened next? I do a little—still recall the second shove,

the third, the moment you hit the ground. The moment I discovered what it was
to be wrothful, how I dove like a prey-bird, seeking the throats of penny-tongued poachers.

How I needed each cubic inch of smoke & it took a great deal of mediation
to keep me from evening the score—for a moment, logic & consequences were trifling things.

All I knew for certain were those posh perpetual pups, who never scuffed paws for nothing,
thought to put hands on the man who was perhaps my only friend. 

I didn’t think of how we shouldn’t be there—security lazing round the alcove,
nor how quick it goes from sound scuffle to an operator & body bags.

I remember you rose to your feet, muttering, my nigga. 
& Proceeded to behemoth through the paint ‘til the sun got sick of spectating.

How we kept it hoops the remaining duration, 
how they never, ever, put a hand on you again.

TY CHAPMAN is a Twin Cities based author and poet of Nigerian and European descent. His recent accomplishments include being named a Loft Literary Center Mirrors and Windows fellow & Mentor Series fellow, creating a one-man shadow puppet and marionette show for Puppet Lab, and publishing poems through SOFTBLOW and Oyster River Pages. His poems made the longlist for both Button Poetry’s 2020 Chapbook Contest, and Frontier Magazine’s 2021 New Voices contest. Ty’s debut picture book SARAH RISING, represented by Savannah Brooks, is set to release in May 2022, through Beaming Books.