– for Alan
While there’s life there’s baseball
the backdoor’s open the radio’s on
the hiss of the crowd fills our house
in early summer when there’s still a chance.
It’s baseball season again
thank god
there’s a small white ball
circling the sky
there are men on base
the 95 year old Italian hawking peanuts
like church
all of us stand up for the incredible play
our heads turning together in one arc.
A guy in the stands catches a foul ball
his friends give him five until his hands are red
and he’s grinning like the moon
the father of a tiny boy asks the guy can his son just
touch it
the man places the ball in the cupped hands of the child and says:
I’ll do more than that. He can have it.
Rows of fans turn their heads toward the man
the father
and the boy
clutching his small prize of light.