Genesis by Robert Cooperman

In the beginning was the peach basket,
or rather, the void of the Springfield YMCA
in the bitter Massachusetts winter of 1891,
exercisers homicidally bored with calisthenics
endless as Sisyphus’s rolled stone. 

So James Naismith was charged with inventing
a game that wasn’t too violent, didn’t need
a lot of space, and could keep men in shape
for the spring track season.  Hence, the two
peach buckets nailed to the walls of the gym. 

Despite rules forbidding tackling, punching,
and gouging, boys cooped up all winter will,
well, be boys: the first game ending in shiners,
broken ribs, and one concussion.  The players
shot with a soccer ball, not a rock-hard
baseball they could hurl at each other,
for the fun of inflicting pain. 

So I think of those peach baskets
as the Great God Naismith proclaiming, 

“Let there be light,” and that soccer ball,
a temporary sun in its firmament; and his rules,
the flora and fauna of the Fifth Day;
the game itself, the Garden; and seeing it all,
Naismith may have been well-pleased, and thought,

“The rock, the spheroid, the basketball—can wait.”

About Robert Cooperman:

Robert Cooperman's latest collection is THE DEVIL WHO RAISED ME (Lithic Press).  Cooperman's love letter to the Grateful Dead, SAVED BY THE DEAD, was published earlier this year by Liquid Light Press.