The Ex Basketball Player - Anaylsis
... poem starts off praising Flick of his achievements of having a “county record”, he “was good” stats the author, “the best”, revealing his admiration for Flick. However near the end of the poem, signs of discontent are present. The narrator is upset that “he never learned a trade” and instead “just sells gas”. The poem consists of mainly colloquial language however contains metaphors and imagery. There is a play on words creating a metaphor of objects related to the gas station to basketball. Describing the pumps “five on a side” is the numbers per player on a basketball team. At the end of the poem Flick nods “towards bright applauding tiers” of candy. This gives the reader to image of the racks of candy as spectators sitting on bleachers watching the basketball game. The hands of Flick “were like wild birds”, quick and able to methodically maneuver the ball. Later in the poem another reference is made to his “fine “hands and though they were good for basketball, at the garage “it makes no difference”. The rhythm of the poem remains steady with only the second stanza contains dashes initiating a pause to the flow of the poem. The overall theme...