By Michael Ceraolo
Comiskey slandered me as unpatriotic
because I went to a shipyard
to work and play ball during the war,
just as he slandered Jackson and Williams,
but that doesn’t justify what they did
Joe and Lefty were my friends,
but don’t let any of the Black Sox bs you:
that wasn’t a one-time lapse in judgment;
they were up to their necks in it
All during the ’20 season they watched the scoreboard
to see what Cleveland was doing,
and if Cleveland was losing or had lost,
they did something to make sure we lost too
My career ended after the ’20 season;
I sometimes wonder if that was because
of guilt by association
Michael Ceraolo is a 62-year-old retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet, the author of two full-length books (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press; 500 Cleveland Haiku, from Writing Knights Press), and two more in the pipeline (Euclid Creek Book Two, from unbound content press; Lawyers, Guns, and Money, from Writing Knights Press).