Playing Pickup Basketball at Sunrise After We Were Turned away From the New York Dolls Concert

Justin Carter

The person at the ticket window said she couldn’t find my name on the guest list & the blog I’d won the free tickets from didn’t have an answer either, so Seth & I stood outside & listened to David Johansen’s voice filter out whenever the door swung open until we were too tired of standing there. We were an hour from home, in a city we knew but also didn’t know—not that part of downtown, not that late at night, no backup plan because why make backup plans, why make any plans at all. Josh worked at the movie theater back home & said he could get us into a 2 a.m. employee-only screening of Land of the Lost, so we made the drive back & did that. Brandon was there. I think it was the last time I saw him before he died, even though this was probably a decade before that happened. Seth had a basketball in the back of his Tracker & it wasn’t too flat. We got shots up as the sun rose in the distance. I probably missed most of mine. That’s what I do—I miss things. It’s always been my best skill.

Justin Carter‘s first book, Brazos, is forthcoming from Belle Point Press in 2024. His poems have appeared in The Adroit Journal, Bat City Review, DIAGRAM, and other spaces. Originally from the Texas Gulf Coast, Justin currently lives in Iowa and works as a sports writer and editor.