D E C E M B E R 1 9 9 4 ![]() CHEAP SEATS, THE CINCINNATI GARDENS, PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL, 1959by William Matthews | |||||||||||||
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The less we paid, the more we climbed. Tendrils of smoke lazed just as high and hung there, blue, particulate, the opposite of dew. We saw the whole court from up there. Few girls had come, few wives, numerous boys in molt like me. Our heroes leapt and surged and looped and two nights out of three, like us, they'd lose. But "like us" is wrong: we had no result three nights out of three: so we had heroes. And "we" is wrong, for I knew none by name among that hazy company unless I brought her with me. This was loneliness with noise, unlike the kind I had at home with no clock running down, and mirrors. Copyright © 1994 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved. The Atlantic Monthly; December 1994; Cheap Seats, The Cincinnati Gardens, Professional Basketball, 1959; Volume 274, No. 6; page 119. |
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