Poem: Gifted

Gifted

On my twelfth birthday, at the Knicks game

I saw Patrick Ewing drop forty on the Bulls

Before Michael Jordan rolled his left ankle.

Dad said I should sit still and let the medics

Do their thing, but I wanted to walk on

Court and heal my hero of his hopping.

Raging red, Dad grabbed me by the ass

And glued me to my front-row seat until

Scottie Pippen hit the buzzer-beating jump shot.

Back home, after we’d had milk and cookies

Dad took me into the back yard and beat me

Repeatedly over the head with stone tablets.

I bled from my right temple like a plagued Nile

And shed a tear for every loss that night.

Graeme Roberts

Author's Note: 'Gifted' forms part of an acclaimed poetry collection which re-imagines the life of Jesus into present day America.  I am currently in the process adapting the collection to create a piece of poetic prose.  This will become the next instalment in my series of short fictions, Living Legends.  The provisional date for the release of 'Living Legends: Jesus Christ' on Amazon Kindle is 11th December 2013.