Summer Love

Summer Love

Every once in a while

I fall in love

with a baseball player.

High school was spent

watching, waiting, thinking

one of them might cast their eyes

on me, and not the leather sphere.

A college roommate labored

as team bat girl and I witnessed

how she of blue eyes

could bat them

any direction and land a man.

In those many summers

I fell for The Stopper,

The Accountant,

The Nasty Boys -

how hat brim shaded the man

from fans as well as sun.

How bright white pants

gleaming in the mid-day rays

were pulled taut over thighs

How batted balls conquered fences

monsters then vanished

into lakes and bays and dreams.

How time stops

in that immortal moment -

pitcher in the wind up

on the cusp of his release,

batter in his pose

breath briefly held,

first baseman

cleats dug into hot dust

heart pounding in the pause.

In this cosmic alignment,

I am struck by love again.

A Memory Postponed - Breakfast in Bed

A Memory Postponed– Breakfast in Bed

AJW

5/12/13

Alone in a king bed

I wake

to footsteps

tiptoeing

down stairs.

A light sleeper,

I register each window shake

and sliding door creak.

But on this morn

little feet slap

along wooden floor.

The pantry door opens

and shuts

and opens

rustling of plastic

shatters silence in the house.

I am not supposed to be up.

A five-year-old boy

tells me,

I’ll let you know

when to wake.

But it is too late.

So I wait.

for my reward

which comes on a tray -

a bowl brimming

with vanilla pudding and colored Loops

garnished with raisins atop.

In one Sunday morning,

he manages to cover

three food groups -

and ground that

most men will not.