Ties

A small portion of my Jerry Garcia ties hanging on Wilson's curtain rod awaiting the next game. I've always liked neck ties, and especially Garcias. They seem to represent the color of this season. I wrote the girls a poem, especially for the seniors on their last day. Most coaches probably watch game film before a big game. Me, I write poems. Maybe if I watched game film more, we'd be in first instead of second. Ah, I'll take the poems…and second place. Here's what I wrote them:

Language

We asked you as a child to learn this colorful language with its active verbs:
Screen, bounce, deny,
pass, dribble, sprint,
pivot, move,
power up,
box out,
skip,
cut.

And you learned it, and of its science of time and space,
boundaries and movement.
You played your part in this changing dance
in little gyms across the cold, wet, winter West,
with people who stayed with you while others moved on.

Seasons came, and went, the days moving longer into
the light of spring, and summer, golden fall,
and back again into the space of blended effort,
and something much larger than you,
something greater than us all.

You learned sacrifice, and pain,
victorious elation,
crushing loss.
You learned frustration, and laughter, moments of searing anger,
but above it all you learned love, with all of its definitions.

You will leave soon and goodbye may seem the cruelest word
in this language,
but new languages await in new spaces,
new times,
with new faces.

You have braided this language into your story,
and your story,
and your story,
into
our story.

And we all know,
our story has no end.

Pops Witten
Dedicated to the 2013-2014 Lady Oakers, but especially the five seniors: Gabbs, Mickey,
L-Train, Doc, Mad Dawg
February 18, 2014