Because they could not find
the old man with the keys
to the storage closet
(One joked that he had gotten drunk
and fallen asleep somewhere)
they had to play without the net;
and as I did not know the rules
and could not see those lines
on which they so fiercely concentrated,
their leaps, desperate lunges, trips,
struck me as ridiculous and elegant,
exalted and irrelevant,
universal and particular.