the basket ball player

She was a basket ball player, she is a basket ball player and she will always be a basket ball player, even when the rigor mortis sets in. That is her identity that is her choice that is her definition of herself. That is who she is.

She loves being on the field, loves tackling the ball, letting it slide, letting it slip into her partner’s hands, then catching it again and dancing with it, flying with it over and over again into the basket. No matter where she is, no matter which direction she faces, no matter who blocks her path or how many, she has the uncanny knack of shooting straight into the hoop. She never misses.

She runs, not much faster than most of her team mates. She jumps not much higher than any of the others. She moves with the ball, twirls, swings, careens, she strums the ball like a guitar string.

She is one with it, with the ball, with the hoop, with the field, with the players - her team mates and her opponents. She feels them in her body. She has a sense of who is where and it is mapped in her body. A map that is constantly in flux. She does not plan, she doesn’t have to analyze, she doesn’t deconstruct or strategize. She knows. A knowing beyond words. She may be able to describe it she may not. She has never tried. All she cares about is the beautiful call of the ball - to shoot right into the ring. 

There is no she, there is no ball, there is only the swirling motion that dances all around her and the joy blazing through her thighs and her arms, her back and her head, her front and her feet.

Her team mates envy her grace and fluidity and are all too glad that she is on their side and not the opposite. Her opponents admire her even as they seek to meet the challenge she poses. They try to outflank her, putting half the team around her. But then the others have a field day and score away.

One time she gets the ball in her hands and they crowd around her making it seemingly impossible to shoot. She feels their presence all around and she smiles. She dissolves the obstacles as she sends shattering love through them all and her joy explodes their defenses as they gasp, when she shoots, who knows how, yet again straight into the rim.