Poetry Challenge Day 5: Moment

Driveway Basketball

The summer sun was bright

Gatorade bottles lined the bumper

of our minivan

My shirt dark with sweat

There is a universal moment all fathers

Must undergo

    We are different men on the other side

    and so are our sons

We always played best of 5

    I had never lost a series 

Games played to 11

    have to win by 2

The three point line was the last section of the driveway

My son was in junior high

I was a year into 40

    I was now looking up to him

The series tied 2 games to 2

Game 5

    I found myself down

        and winded

        my legs wobbly

    shots blocked when I drove

        short when I found space to shoot

Maybe it was the sweat in my eyes

    but when he checked the ball

    I swore I could see him five years in the future

A young man

    confident 

        and strong

I called timeout

I needed a drink

He took one, too

    but we were quiet

    there was more than the summer heat in the air

   

My son only need a point to win

    I needed six to tie

As I asked him to check

    I felt my heartbreak like it had done so many times before

A father’s heart is scarred from both joy and pain

    moments of joy hurt the most

        I steadied myself for the outcome

I drove left

Crossed over to the right

    pulling up for a jumper

He elevated to block the shot

    knocking it past the check line

Before I could even turn around

    the ball was approaching the rim

Nothing but net

He yelled, “Yes!”

Exhausted I dropped to the concrete

The sky was a cloudless blue

Silence

My son’s smile and hand appeared above me

“Good game,” he said, 

like we always do

I said 

“You earned that,” as he helped me up

I turned around 

    On the grey concrete a dark imprint of my torso

    like the body outline of a murder victim

It wasn’t a crime scene, though

It was a right of passage

    For both father and son