Filed under: Basketball, Bread City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: Basketball Poetry, Cliff Dweller
Shooting hoops,
you realize that
the spirit of the universe
swirls around you
like a gentle
blue light
The lowering sun beckons
your eyes and nothing else
This is all you need
This is your life,
that hunk of
one city street,
and you become
a thing of beauty
jumping through
the evening’s stillness
with this pumpkin
in your hand
You choose
to be outside
playing basketball
because you have
a small hole to fill
A net of darkness
that you love
more than a best friend
Street lights are shining again
in the shadow of the city
You’re in the middle,
catching the ball
before you leap
as high as Olympus
And suddenly you see
your fingertips
on the ball
growing older,
growing darker,
the very last drop
of immortality
by Cliff Dweller

photo via superbomba
Filed under: Bread City, New York City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: Food, New York City Culture, West Side
Hot bowl of pastina,
23rd Street and the river.
Subway grime patina,
shout to chopped liver.

photo by Stephan Alessi
New York cops in Jersey
and girls who never smile:
there’s something going on there
that’s in a secret file.

photo by Ana Kras
Filed under: Bread City, Endangered Aesthetics, Photography, Poetry | Tags: Basketball Archeology, Basketball Culture, Street Basketball
Swishing on chain nets
the very last cigarette
the first bowl of cereal
subway timing miracles
crisp American dollars.
Holler.

photo by Eugene Tan
DOWNLOAD CHAIN SWISH HERE
Filed under: Bread City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: 1990s Aesthetics, Alfonso Ribeiro, Carlton Banks, Fresh Prince, Nike Air Force
Carlton with the tongues out
white Air Force optometrist
bout to fly off on a carpet
like you never even heard of this.
Filed under: Basketball, Bread City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: Holga Photography, Summer
Hot long purple
purple nights
here we come.

CLICK HERE for full size
by Jeff Shaw
Filed under: Bread City, New York City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: New York City Culture, Summer, West Side
up on riverside and ninety-five
sidewalk heat
3 bags of lye
2 girls on a stoop
waiting for the bus
1 had a tennis racket
so we lit up the dutch.

photo by AC Berkheiser
CLICK HERE for full size
Filed under: Basketball, Bread City, Poetry, Sneakers, Video | Tags: 1980s Culture, Karl Malone, Marketing
Take some some sunshine, some tank tops, some LA Gear. Take two people. Have them pretend to have fun while pretending to play basketball while not knowing how to play basketball. Have them hop back and forth with the ball, blatantly traveling. Have them regress into childhood. The playground bully goes through the motions but does not know how to get what he wants. The girl-next-door knows how not to give it to him. This guy will never call her out on double-dribbling. Have them dance. Have them not pretend to not know how to play basketball. Take a theme song. LA Gear. LA Gear. You’ve got the moovvves. LA Gear.
Sneaker Fact: Karl Malone rocked these.
Filed under: Bread City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: Nostalgia, Ohio, Polaroid Photography, Slang
holding packs of crayons/
we call that burnt sienna/
cleveland browns bandanna/
my ferrari antenna.

On my way down to the lobby
reach quick now it’s a robbery
Arabs rushing in
smashing the antique pottery.
Luckily we rigged
the whole room booby trapped
they look under the rug
and get blown up.

Filed under: Bread City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: East Hampton, expensive sandwiches, hip hop, Long Island Poetry
we got guns
we got cannons
we got planes
and we got hammocks,
don’t call my cell when
i’m in the hamptons
cause i’m eating
two-hundred dollar
tunafish sandwiches.

photo by Martin Rusch
Filed under: Bread City, Brooklyn, New York City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: Brooklyn Poetry
Wire trash cans swarmed
by bees, hair gets salty
in the breeze then sunset sand
and quarts of beer
men stand fishing on the pier.
Fire crackles hot and dry
red waves lap closer
reflecting the sky.

photo by Nicholas Breslow
CLICK HERE for full size
Filed under: Bread City, Brooklyn, New York City, Photography, Poetry | Tags: 1990s Culture, Brooklyn Poetry, New York City Culture
suitcases packed with cigarettes
new sneakers sealed in plastic
men hustling umbrellas
hoping for the storm to break

photo by Bonnie Natko

