Instructions Upon My Death

take
       my record books
       and throw them in the freezer
       for my descendants to thaw

and take
       my boring life story
       and burn it to ashes
       along with


Sammy Sosa
                     defining each
   each side
            of the plate
        with a tap of the bat


Mark McGwire
                    eyes blinking
hard
then
                    stretching wide
                                             open
to see what is coming


Rickey Henderson
                     bent over
                                        his head 
                                  following
                              the ball
                          in then
                     stopping
                     straight
                     down
                     eyes
                     peeking
back at the catcher's
glove


Barry Bonds
                 face full of
boredom and disgust


all those
ball threes

A Prayer for My Daughter

in our youth, your mom and i
would stay up till dawn
seducing the seasons
to make beautiful and live

then anyone ever a 3-2 count
pregnant with springtime
shorten stroke
quick--

protect.

the dawns become days
and days days eating plain vanilla ice cream
and another day
and another ice cream
& day
& ice cream
&

a popup in the sun
somewhere headed--

where am i
going was stand should
when fail must
cannot

see, fall, and you--
born of beautiful grown of days
scarred of cannot--

turning to
me as anymore
i forget, lost, but
you
here--

today
enjoy your ice cream.

and may come spring you
make beautiful
and live

Magic

                            magic
   is a radioactive
                      element
                                with an imperceptible
              half-life




                      a tree
                  can be climbed
               like a long stairway
                  to mysterious
                      planets
                     circling
                      distant
                       stars




so
step up
and swing
before the call
to come in for dinner
makes the invisible runner
standing on the second base bag
become a beat-up old glove lying out in the street

1994 Strike

           not even a
             hi mom
        to the ancestors.

             a tree
       forgets mother earth
           and topples
        for lack of roots.

       the glorified leaves
crumble in the dry wind.  the wood
          decays.  mom

         can only sprout
         anew, forgetting
              back

         ungrateful sons

Scar

a baseball is born

shiny and smooth
as a baby's cheek

a perfect sphere
travelling innocently
in straight lines

in time,
a single bloody scar

                wraps around
                         its body
                 and changes
          everything