One Summer Afternoon Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

A book written by Dalton Trumbo
was assigned as class reading
one summer session
much of it read aloud
by the teacher

sweltering classroom
windows open
summer sun
sharp crack
of bat

high school athletes
in full vigor
running bases
and catching
fly balls

Perhaps it was the teacher's reading
that drew us into the story and involved
us in the narrator's plight - whatever
it was worked

*I can't hear. My left arm. I wonder what
they've done with it!
No legs you see. No more running walking
crawling if you have no legs. He had
no arms and no legs.
He was blind. It wasn't a dream.
He thought Jesus Joe there must
be some other way.*

All the time the teacher read
we could hear the players
outside chattering away
shouts as a run scored

dust motes in the afternoon
sunlight seemed alive

Then the bell rang
and we sat stunned

Our summer was almost over