Reviving the Art of Baseball Doggerel
Rafael Devers
Will never say never
But he’s pretty sure
He wouldn’t go on a gastronomic foraging tour.
Paul Skenes
Mentors awkward teens.
Growing up in California
He too had acne and body dysphoria.
Elly de la Cruz
Has over 400 pairs of shoes
And 75 square meters
Of Odor Eaters.
Alec Bohm.
Wherever he lays his hat is his home.
But wherever he is across the nation,
He digs The Temptations.
afternoon baseball awakens with the city in the west
pirates vs. marlins adorning the hanging television screen
around him
the day
leisurely stretches,
softly
it begins to
speak:
cars zoom by,
apartments rumble,
dogs shout good mornings at the sun
ke’bryan hayes steps up
to bat
knocks a sure footed
first inning triple
hit into right field
rounds one base,
then two, gone
with the wind
like his helmet
as he sprints towards parking
at third revealing
the tiniest neatest of ‘fros positioned
atop his dome like a crown
okay
sir,
we see you
keep our spirits alive
today’s gonna be alright
.
Tauwan Patterson is a Black + Queer Poet and recent graduate of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. His work has appeared in online literary magazines Cool Beans Lit, 3rd Wednesday Magazine, and Muse-Pie Press’ Shot Glass Issue #41, and will also appear in the forthcoming Moonstone Arts Center anthology Which Side Are You On?!, the Winter Issue of Rise Up Review, Porkbelly Press’ Love Me, Love My Belly zine, the Rising Phoenix Review, the Academy of the Heart and Mind, The Amazine, and Arteidolia. With his poetry Tauwan aims to, in the words of the great poet and thinker Marcus Jackson, announce his freedom and presence. Making a sound that echoes in the end that says Tauwan Patterson. No more. No less.
And then, 40 years later, these pioneers of Philly soul were captured on video at a census block party in the City of Brotherly Love. What better examples of two gems of the American heritage that we must lovingly pass on to the next generation.
Have a happy and old-school Fourth of July, Bardballers! Stay safe!
(Video by KeishaRenee1991)
Rhys Hoskins’ first game back in Philly
was a definite “all-the-feel”-er.
Tears in the dugout, hugs with Harper,
and he hammered like Hank off Wheeler.
Chuckles and winks when he swiped second,
to the shock of JT Realmuto.
But an unwelcome visitor back at home–
laid low by a sweet Rojas throw.
Harper’s harrumphs are too much for some umps.
Do his protests go over the line?
With one bearded sneer, he plays them for chumps,
’til it’s “Bat down, now go grab some pine!”
Phillies’ Harper Calls Ump Unprofessional After Controversial Ejection
Photo credit: Yahoo Sports