The Yard
- Jul 7
- 2 min read
By Dimitri Reyes
In just a little bit this schoolyard like every schoolyard
within 4 blocks of each other will fill with the laughter of children,
the bites of Chick-O-Sticks, crunch of Takis, balls hitting rim.
A few girls will stomp the yard, apply lip gloss, and sneak a few groupies
while a teacher’s aide is preoccupied watching a game where Anthony,
in 8th grade, hasn’t missed this whole period.
A soccer ball is kicked over the fence onto the main ave
and the security guard hollers for the one responsible kid
who looks both ways to scale the chainlink that locks us in.
He jumps over this border with ease. On the other side it’s quiet and empty
except for a few whizzing by cars, and the ball, a red and blue Messi,
rests between the curb and the muffler of a teacher’s Focus.
With noone in sight, he looks down the street until he can’t see
anymore signs and he knows just beyond that is the park.
His legs have ran him there before, and just like that,
he can leave the ball and take off, the way some people do.
At this point he hears the shaking of the fence followed by the beckons
of another security guard to which he responds by picking up the ball
and throwing it over before climbing his way back in.
Dimitri Reyes is a Boricua multidisciplinary artist, content creator, and educator from Newark, New Jersey. He has been named one of The Best New Latinx Authors of 2023 by LatinoStories.com for his most recent book, Papi Pichón (Get Fresh Books, 2023) which was a finalist for the Omnidawn chapbook contest and the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. His other books include Every First and Fifteenth, the winner of the Digging Press 2020 Chapbook Award, and the poetry journal Shadow Work for Poets, now available on Amazon. Dimitri's work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and his work has been featured in Poem-a-Day, The Rumpus, Letras Latinas, & Acentos among others. He was also an inaugural poetry fellow for the Poets & Writers Get The Word Out publishing incubator and a 2024 fellow with the NJ Arts Professional Learning Institute. Dimitri is also the Marketing & Communications Director at CavanKerry Press. Learn more about Dimitri by visiting his website at https://www.dimitrireyespoet.com/
