IT’S LIKE BASEBALL

You have to live with tragedy,
the insistent possibility of tragedy
in a world that knows tragedy,

leaves you to grab at what comes, slow
grounders, tantalizing flies
you find in no man’s land.

When you see a smoking, rising slant,
try. Find a little fame, they’ll never
excuse you. Learn to fail over

and over. That’s the heady stuff
makes you hunger, makes you
fling yourself out there.