WINTER FIELDS

Like an ice-eyed closer
winter stares down
the landscape

Turns base paths
into frozen scars

Glazes the mound
with frost that
crunches underfoot

Stiffens once-green
blades of grass
brown now as an
old ball sodden
with damp

Dugout rooftops
peer out from the drifts
barren outposts of
retreated summer

Bleachers
and warning track
contentious arenas
a season past
lie buried in
indifference
waiting for the
boys of summer
to scoop and fire
the blazing coals
that will thaw
the frozen air