ANOTHER DAY OF PAIN

I’m not yet fully awake when
the pain slams into me
Upper thigh on the right side
So sharp I gasp

Will it ever end, I wonder
As I struggle to sit up in bed
I can’t roll over, and when I try
It feels like I’m being stabbed

I was agile and fleet
on the bases, and I could
hit to all fields, but now it’s
a later time and I weep

I weep for my teammates Fat Sam
and Howie who are gone now
so I miss our games in the sun
bare chested, with the girls watching

The sun burns hot on my back
While Sam is guarding the plate
And Howie is at third and I grab one
over my shoulder in left

one day free of the pain is what I ask
wearing a pair of gyms instead of the braces
and I tear from first to third ending with a
hook slide that kicks up the dust