April 10 ("Ode to Antoine" by Alan Heathcock)

It's hard to blog everyday, even to write just a couple crummy paragraphs, but to help take up the slack, I'm pleased to share with you a quickie poem from a guy who spent ten years on an award-winning story collection. Here's Idaho resident and Volt author Alan Heathcock's words of wisdom on the recent retirement of former NBA star and recent D-League Boise baller Antoine Walker:

Ode to Antoine

The man could ball
The mighty do fall
Like the banks don't say please
Age works on the knees
You've paid your debt Antoine
No sense in going on
Pinch your pennies
Love your memories
and get your hand loosed
to sit by the blue ribbon goose
and sign ball cards at the state fair
for folks like me, the few who still care

Carry on, but don't palm the ball.