by Stephen Jones
Who was it,
What savvy pundit
Or, more likely,
What marketing employee
Decided to layer
All the All-Star players
In red and blue clown
Suits, or as actors in “Tron”?
All-Star Game Moment
by Stephen Jones
The Kenes/Judge first-inning showcase
Was anticipated,
And both the fans and commentators
Were elated
When — bells ringing — it occurred.
But it was a bit of a letdown:
No fireworks — an HR or strikeout —
When the Judge grounded out to third …
And then it was all over too soon.
Thank You, Vito Barone
by Jim Siergey
I have to thank
Vito Barone
for introducing me to
Willie Mays.
Vito lived across the alley
and was appalled to learn
that at the age of nine
I knew nothing
about baseball.
That summer
he came over every day
and we would go across the street
to the empty lot
where he would teach me
to catch, field. throw
and hit a baseball.
Every day.
Where I grew up
you were either
a Cubs fan
or a Sox fan.
Vito was an anomaly
as he was a Giants fan.
Whenever the Cubs played the Giants
he’d invite me over
and we’d watch the games
on TV.
There I got to see Willie Mays
in his prime.
Also
McCovey, Marichal and Cepeda
but Willie was special.
He was magical.
So, thank you, Vito,
wherever you are.
Still Life
by Paul Kocak
That cinnamon voice
Ricocheting in the clubhouse
Keeping things loose
On the bench
And in the bleachers
No matter the score
Mays’ cinnamon spirit
Sprinkled on summer’s
Long afternoons
Les Keiter on WINS
Me with the transistor
San Francisco an eternity away
You never left
I wouldn’t let you
The Giants fled
I stayed
Your cap flying off
Still
Paul Kocak is the author of Chasing Willie Mays: Chronicles of a Fan Left Behind.
Baseball in July
by Tauwan Patterson
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.