PATSY’S PORK STORE

Myopic, good field?
a relative term in Little League ball,
no hit – just stand there, stupid,
a walk is as good as a hit,
I played an irregular first base,
deathly afraid of making an error.
Who in the 6th grade
wants to be ridiculed?
I did not recognize the
greater embarrassment.
Emblazoned on the back
of my uniform in large red letters
was, “PATSY’S PORK STORE,”
the sponsor of our woebegone team,
a decidedly un-kosher emporium
to be shunned by close family relatives.
I do not remember my batting average,
but I do remember that sign,
a walking advertisement for a store
I’d never be allowed to enter.