CRUTCH

In small towns
Boyhood friends’ homes
Become verities:
Touchstones of memory,
Comforting without speaking,
Confirming all of us young.
When B-Ball games were
Always “pickup,” and
Like Runyon’s floating craps,
Their location known mysteriously:
Time and Place.
Youthful words were few,
Action was more important.
Years later the games remain
In fading Sports Page minds:
Who won, who lost, who cried?
Who cared? Unending games
Now being called one by one
On account of darkness.
As they were,
As they always were.

(From “The Pilot’s Satchel” 2016