Little League
David P. Miller



That buzz-haired
summer of ‘62,
over the field
of hollering coaches,
another spiteful sphere
hurtled through the
kid-soaked air,
softball aimed to
shatter all twenty-
seven hand bones,
unless it chose
to brain me,
ball shot wildly
toward my skull
because I could
not back away
deep enough in
the outfield to
simply vanish after
one week’s practice
(where’d Miller go?) –
so never mind
how many smug
bases I stole,
ran hard and
fast for home,
that summer was
the inning when
the game collapsed
no matter how
the grownups blabbered
about real boys.
 
 



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About the Author: David P. Miller’s chapbook, The Afterimages, was published in 2014. His poems have recently appeared in Meat for Tea, Ibbetson Street, Constellations, riverbabble, What Rough Beast, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, and Autumn Sky Poetry Daily. A Boston resident, he was a member of the multidisciplinary Mobius Artists Group for 25 years.
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