The Two Doubles, The Hits My Father Paul Ryan Never Saw Poem by Dennis Ryan

Monday morning, January 23,2023 at 6 a.m.

The two doubles against Spencerport, the hits
my father Paul Ryan never saw that summer of 1968
of American Legion baseball, the games that went
unattended the one season I hit over.400, even
outhitting our clean-up man Steve "Luigi" Lewis,
all well-remembered, invoked now, this very moment,
valued, highly valued all his hours of thankless
laboring in the pharmacy so we could attend
university debt-free, his lifelong love of Norte
Dame football buried, buried deep inside of me.
Water. Of baptism. Elm tree, front yard. Of life.
A full life. Cauldron. Of life's turmoil, struggles.
Surrender. Finality. Of death. Due. Do us part.