Part of It Again

For a while

Co-created with DALL-E

there was no bench

that was part of it

no place to be sent

until someone better got tired

you went in

you stayed in

you ran until someone else looked winded

then the disc turned

and you were part of it again

no clipboard

no one calling out who mattered more

just the field opening

then closing

then opening again

someone always laughing somewhere behind the play

someone cutting hard for no reason except the space was there

the good ones kept us close

the rest kept us honest

nobody sat long enough

to become a spectator of his own life

that may have been the whole thing

not the throws

not the layouts

not even the strange little glory of getting there in time

just that for a while

we belonged to something

without having to earn a higher place in it

Thanks for reading my poem.

Originally published in Beyond the Scoreboard on May 30, 2025, as the personal essay “We Were 4–0 in Losses.”

Copyright © 2026 by Michael M. Brownstein