Baseball Poem by Angel Valdez

I dreamed Mark McGwire,
Leaning at night
Against Alex Rodriguez, weeping
He was in uniform
And his bat lay at his feet
-knotted and twiggy
“Jose Marti says you’re a poet! ” I cried
“So do I! I say you’re a poet”
He picked up his bat with blown hands;
Stood there astraddle as he would in the batter’s ox,
And laughed! Flinging his schoolboy wrath
Towards this invisible pitcher’s mound
-waiting the pitch all the from heaven.
It came; hundreds came! All afire!
He swung and swung and swung and connected not one
Sinker curve hook or right down the middle.
A hundred strikes!
The umpire dressed in strange attire
Thundered his judgement: “YOU’RE OUT! ”
And the phantom crowd’s horrific boo
Dispersed the gargoyles from Notre Dame.
And in my dream I screamed:
God! Throw thy merciful pitch!
Herald the crack of bats!
Hooray the sharp liner to left!
Yeah the double, the triple!
Hosanna the home run!