Swish
Back beyond the top
of the key almost mid-court,
alone for all she knows
there in the gym,
getting her reps in,
honing her sport
(she’s got game, but
the rap is she’s too short),
she gazes, dribbling,
toward the far-off rim,
and keeps dribbling while
the gym reverberates.
Then stops stock-still,
plants, and concentrates
— head raised, eyes dark
above the cradled ball —
on air, distance, maybe
a dream — still waits
crouching — then launches
and beholds it all.
A former Bucks County (PA) Poet Laureate and multiple Pushcart nominee, Terence Culleton has published poems in a wide variety of reviews and journals both in the U.S. and the U.K., and several of his poems have been featured on NPR. Mr. Culleton’s third volume of poetry, a collection of sonnets entitled A Tree and Gone, is now out through Future Cycle Press and has been featured on the New York Review of Books Independent Press “New Releases” list. It’s available https://amzn.to/3qDrRqN or through his website: terenceculletonpoetry.com, where you can read his blogs, catch up on his breathlessly exciting life as a writer, and even purchase his other two books, A Communion of Saints and Eternal Life.
Pulsebeat Poetry Journal 