Stained Glass Windows (The NBA’s Holy Trinity)

A Detroiter, Elontra Hall, blesses us with a poem about the greatest hoopers of his generation

Original Art by Antonio Losada (Twitter)

Posters adorn pockmarked walls.

Boy drinks them in like communion wine — holy water.

I.

Jordan hangs in the air
like a Christmas ornament he floats
over the court. The ball splashes
cleanly through the net: a smooth stone
into water.

II.

As Bird falls backward
into the other team’s bench,
time seems to slow.

The ball screams from his hands:
a thunderbolt loosed from a longbow. Time has expired,
but the arch of the projectile holds existence together.

Rushing earthward gathering phaeton-like speed. And then:
shot slices surgically through nylon.

Cheers like confetti, fall from the crowd.

III.

The ball appears where it shouldn’t.
Defender’s legs don’t cooperate.