Vol. 1, No. 4: Shammgod Unbound photo

A Poem in Honor of the 1994-1995 Mount Vernon Middle School Lion’s 8th Grade Basketball Team’s Favorite Song: Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper”Darren Demaree

Here’s the hard field-

notes from the last

boy that made the team

because he would dive

 

into the stands for

no real reason at all

& barely played, but wore

those team warmups

 

like a teen claimant

testifying for one girl’s

attention. Any girl

that wouldn’t make

 

fun of brown glasses

& the silk shirts I wore

to every dance we had.

You cannot know this

 

without me telling you,

but the bus trips

with my friend Paras

& with Ini Kamoze

 

blaring from the discman

is the closest I’ve come

to prayer. It filled me

with reasons

 

to carry such color.

I didn’t like anyone else

on that team, but I sang

with them all the time.

 

Regret is as useful

as a uniform

so tight that it tears

during a lay-up line.

 

Nah, na-na-na-nah

Na-na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na

Na-na-na-nah

Nah, na-na-na-nah.