Tuesday, April 01, 2008

#1 A Pleiades


SOFTBALL

Sports is not my long suit, yet
something like a softball catches
summer visions of my dad,
sainted, with a wad of gum
sanctified to one purpose:
stuffing it in the umpire's
short-winded, surprised pie-hole!



My dad loved baseball. He loved to listen to it on the radio, he loved to play. He once pitched a no hitter against the great Satchel Paige. He had an opportunity to play for the Los Angeles Angels, but passed it up because he loved mining more (or thought he would get rich quicker). He chewed a wad of gum like some players chewed tobacco. Once, when the umpire was yelling at him for something, my dad calmly took the wad of gum from his mouth and shoved it into the umpire's gaping, wide-open mouth, stopping the tirade instantly. Whatever works!

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this! I think the pleiades is great for a humorous poem. For some reason, most of the ones I've written are lighthearted like this one is.

I love the photo of your dad. He does look determined.

ren powell said...

Mining over baseball? That is a special man (meaning that in the best way-having to do with work-ethics!)

ren powell said...

oh- I just finished a poem about mining (though WV coal mining) I am not posting it (it's for my phd)- It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on it!