Make Your Move

Georgia Anne Banks Martin

    He brushed his hat like a butler might
    before placing it on his shaven head.
     
    The jersey that once hung
    like a sack from his shoulders,
    oversized jeans, brand-name sneakers,
    replaced by a button-down shirt,
    pleated pants, mid-priced loafers.
     
    It’s a two hour drive to town
    where he grew up stuffing sandwich bags
    with black and red discs into his pockets,
    carrying an 8x8 grid folded in half
    to the biggest tree in the park,
     
    playing checkers with his dad
    he would abandon first
    for frat houses, dreaded hair,
    pre-professional tests;
                  then bids,
    licenses,
                contracts,
    twenty minutes to dart ‘cross town,
    twenty minutes before the older man
    will pull a red stool to the table
    move one black piece forward.
     

     

    

Georgia Anne Banks Martin - Georgia Ann Banks-Martin was born in Lincoln Park, MI on Feb. 6, 1971. She was raised on the southwest side of Detroit in the area known as Marion Park. She attended Beard Elementary, Wilson Middle School, and Southwestern High. However, she completed high school at Sidney Lanier in 1989 after relocating to Montgomery, AL during the summer of 1988. She earned her BA in English, Language Arts at Huntingdon College, Montgomery, AL (1997) and her M.F.A. (Poetry) at Queens University of Charlotte, located in Charlotte, NC (2009). Currently she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpentaria, CA
    Address: Georgia Ann Banks-Martin
    2226 Palmetto Street
    Montgomery, AL 36107
    georgiabanksmartin@yahoo.com
    Web: georgiabanksmartin.com
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