My Favorite Nikes Have a Hole in Them

No tugging at laces,

(heart)strings loosed,

sliding past your tongue

into

you.

Not in a rush,

our jumps and jukes

are in the past.

How much ground have we covered

together?

Apart?

Sometimes I go it alone,

step into the world,

shorn of your comfort;

I ache, from my feet to my *

and everywhere in between,

worn out from want of you,

my soul in tatters.

I can’t afford to give you up

but we’re broken (baby).

How can we be falling apart

when it feels so good?

 

Things that Lie (or The Rasheed Wallace Maxims)

Official(ly) ignoring

sleeping dogs,

to peer into your eyes,

which choose not to believe

it [when “it” is played as “it”]

or those little and white(?)

words under a picture.

Why would I?

When, like Craig,

I ain’t gotta;

not me,

even though you calling me one,

I would never

make one, out of you.

Therefore,

allow me to do

what the ball won’t:

pray,

keep me,

as

down to sleep

I

go.

 

Jordan VII Olympic Colorway

I was never really into shoes

but when I was 19 I worked at T-Mobile

They had a sales program

you logged your sales with corporate

and redeemed those points

for merchandise

My coworkers didn’t care

so I logged every sale made in store

The best thing I got was a self-winding watch

with a clear face

beautiful

I also got tons of basketball shoes

at the time I had quit playing college ball

for a girl

Huge mistake

or maybe not

maybe I keep playing

go to a D2 school

and my world never expands

Maybe sneakers take on more importance

than they do or did

When I transferred from JUCO to university

I got rid of all my shoes

and tons of clothes

Minimalism hit me

I felt bogged down by possessions

It could have been the weed

but pot doesn’t give an idea

that wasn’t there to begin with

Was it the bitter 30-something at LA Fitness

He angrily told me I only had shoes

because I didn’t pay rent

I did not tell him about T-Mobile’s sales program

before busting his ass

but it always stuck with me

It wasn’t the shoes

never the shoes

I did away with them

and my jeans

and my button downs

and my fitteds

[I didn’t have throwbacks]

Accumulate and purge

is a process I’ve repeated many times

when I realize the impermanence of things

of their meanings to me

Maybe that’s why I have never bought

[                                     ]

My brother had them

I borrowed them one time

without his consent

They were great then

and maybe are now

but I’m too scared to find out

that buying them won’t bring back

whatever it is

I’ve lost

whatever it is

that isn’t coming back