The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: BASKETBALL

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann. I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I intend to write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?Here are January's prompts: apron, bar, basketball, bed, bicycle, birthday, boat, broom, button, cake, car.
<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> </div>--> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>BASKETBALL</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I've never been much of a sportsperson, and in school I would do just about anything to avoid PE. Some years I got out of it by doing clean-up work for my teacher. In high school I helped my gym coach with his bus schedules (he was in charge of the school buses, and I was good at organizing...). I'm sure both of these things are wildly inappropriate and wouldn't happen today – but I was pretty happy about them when they happened to me! I don't remember playing basketball for fun, or attending a basketball game (and certainly not watching them on TV!). I don't think any of my siblings every played basketball, either. I have the faintest of faint recollections of being in a school (or church?) gym with my sister and throwing the basketball Granny style and even making a few (!).... and that brings to mind Grandma Dykes, whose physical build I completely inherited. Yet, she, apparently, was quite the athlete. She played basketball in school, long before it was popular for girls to play basketball. From what my father said, she was quite good. I wish I knew more.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CLEI9wQGrr..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="528" height="308" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CLEI9wQGrr..." width="400" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Dear Basketball,</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I've watched the way </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">in other people's hands</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">you dribble, </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">spin, and roll –</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">while in mine</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">you sleep like a troll.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Perhaps I should take</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">more time,</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">get to know your ways.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Maybe then</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">I might come to love</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">your bumpy, orange face.</div><br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;"> <i>- Irene Latham</i></div><a style="background-color:black;color:white;text-decoration:none;padding:4px 6px;font-family:-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "San Francisco", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, "Segoe UI", Arial, sans-serif;font-size:12px;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.2;display:inline-block;border-radius:3px" href="https://unsplash.com/@tommybebo?utm_m..." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" title="Download free do whatever you want high-resolution photos from tommy bebo"><span style="display:inline-block;padding:2px 3px"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" style="height:12px;width:auto;position:relative;vertical-align:middle;top:-2px;fill:white" viewBox="0 0 32 32"><title>unsplash-logo</title><path d="M10 9V0h12v9H10zm12 5h10v18H0V14h10v9h12v-9z"></path></svg></span><span style="display:inline-block;padding:2px 3px">tommy bebo</span></a>