Originally published on Hickory-High in March of 2014:
DeMarcus Cousins, Human Being
The Monster Child has risen from Alabama roots
Casting a bulking shadow from Mobile to Sacramento
There’s a trail of splintered courts,
Broken noses and bruised skulls (and tender groins)
From Lexington where the blue grass is rolled up and smoked in honor of Rupp or Pitino or Cal or Tubby just to pass the time
To the capital of Cali where the Sleep Train snores (or roars)
Carnage follows Cousins
Judgments rain down on the kid in the form of
Downpours of critiques from self-appointed protectors of
Unwritten old school codes of conduct
Scouts prognosticate:
“Emotionally immature, but…”
“A volcano waiting to burst, but…”
Mama and coaches counter-market messages:
“Passionate with a target on his back”
“He just wants to win so bad”
Let’s ride the DeMarcus Cousins timeline as it spins on its omnipresent axis
A merry go round born of tragedy and comedy
Alternating the fairytale of 23s and 13s
With the ether-laced fear and loathing of justified ejections
Stay put, the ride churns on, powered by an all mighty unseen source
With streams and reams and stacks and packs
Of double double stats
Offset by pitfall punches
Stupid suspensions
Avoidable activities and
Torrents of technicals
DeMarcus, the enigmatic legend of LeFlore High School
Who escaped Erwin in a cloud of gray unknowns while
Mama told all she was tired of DeMarcus being treated like a
Piece of meat
Kentucky meant Calipari meant college meant pressure
Cooking in SEC cauldrons
Too hot to keep cool, but cool enough for 15s and 10s
Sufficient for a one-way trip to Stern’s NBA where
Obedience is paid for in mounds of millions
An upside down world of do’s and don’ts
Where faucets run green with royal money
For men willing to abide by the assimilation into mass corporatization
Not a boy anymore
Not an object either
Not a commodity, an asset, or an asshole
Not a glass bowl
To be psychoanalyzed with
Psycho babble babble … father figure
Babble babble … own worst enemy
Babble fucking babble
23-year-old Alabama freight train
Run away run away run away
From it all
There’s nowhere left to run
Center court of center stage
In the middle
Under media microscopes
A good-becoming-great basketball talent
Anything else … is the
Wholeness of human gray
Between, beyond, beneath, beside
Good and evil
Giant human basketball player
With a capacity for the same beauties and empathies as the rest of us
It’s just DeMarcus, a man from Alabama who plays a little ball and goes by Boogie
Dancing With Noah 