With sports you never know
when one season ends,
and another one begins – it’s seamless.
We can never celebrate victories
or mourn our loses without
the start of a new round of play.
Baseballbasketballfootballhockeytennis
all seem to merge into each other.
It might all become just one sport
which might conjure up interesting possibilities:
a hockey stick used as a baseball bat,
a basketball thrown for a touchdown,
a tennis ball on its arc towards the basket.
It’s all one sport, you know,
quickly won and quickly forgotten.
Listen, you various commissioners,
give us some breathing room
where we can take a walk or read a book.
Limit your numbers of games.
Shorten the duration of each game,
so that one day we may emerge
from our TVs and covered arenas,
and catch hold of the brilliant sun and sky.
THE POETRY OF THE GAME