Field Of Lost Dreams Poem by Laurence Overmire

Shortly after I was born
In Rochester, New York, in 1957
The Dodgers left Brooklyn

So when I moved to Brooklyn
Some twenty-five years later
Anxious to re-connect with the
Mythical figures of my youth
I felt that something was missing
The legend of those Boys of Summer
Had been lost and no one talked
About them anymore

Snider, Reese, Campanella, Hodges

They didn't even know their names
Dem Bums

And no one much remembered
Where they played - Ebbets Field

It took some doing, but I finally
Figured out where it was - the ball park
Or at least, where it used to be
And I hopped a couple of subways
To get there

When I finally found it
Something died inside me
It was just another ordinary place
So unimaginative, so unremarkable...
They tore the stadium down and put a big
Ugly apartment building on the spot
That reverent, irreverent spot

Ebbetts Field - that held all those
Memories -
The emerald green diamond
That sparkled in the springtime,
Little kids and their dads laughing, cheering
Times that would never be duplicated
Ever again

Ballplayers who lived in the neighborhood...
The Knothole Gang
The Sym-Phony
Hit Sign Win Suit

Gone.

History was made there
Important American history
But no one seems to care anymore
About history
Only a few old codgers like me
Who read books and dream of better
Days - when love meant more than
Making money

Only we, perhaps, still see in our aging
Mind's eye
Jackie Robinson taking that extra step off
Third base
Taunting the pitcher
Flying into the teeth of adversity and
Stealing home

Yes, whenever I think of Brooklyn
I think of the Dodgers
And I remember they left
Shortly after I was born.

~ Laurence Overmire

(Previously published in New York Minute: An Actor's Memoir, Indelible Mark Publishing,2017)