"Ex-Basketball Player" by john updike

The poem “Ex-Basketball Player”, by John Updike, reflects on the mediocrity of a once fantastic high school basketball player, Flick Webb. Flick was “good: In fact, the best” but his lack of education led him to a career of “ gas, oil, and flats”. The poem is very straightforward and uses irony virtually in every stanza such as the irony in the name “Pearl Avenue”. Pearl Avenue is the avenue that “runs past the high-school lot…and stops, cut off before it has a chance to go two blocks” similar to Flick’s basketball career. His career was cut short before it had a chance to really get started. And where should the avenue end but at the garage where Flick works.
Flick must not have been a bright person because “Flick stands tall among the idiot pumps” suggests that he is the lead idiot. Even the gas pumps serve as re...