-It’s good enough / A love poem to a baseball-

Columbus Park. the early years.

we can look it over from now to doomsday

It'll still be good enough.

we're here long beyond our limits

and if we don't play, it's not a happy ending.

I remember this baseball.

last week Pieroni fished it out from the sewer

across the street at the foot of 1017.

Tony Scelsi dried it out in his basement and

wrapped it inside a blanket like a bunting.

now it’s the ball we have.

the streetlights are getting ready

to inhale the color of amber.

the bat in my hand is the preferred ash 29 inch.

“I like the light ones”.

Cinquini yells: “no Chips”! as if it was personal.

Gasperini yells: "play Ball"! knowing it's unnecessary.

and why not play ball?

It’s beaten and scarred and smells like a sewer

but it's the one we have and it's good enough.
they're always good enough.

Quequechan / 1953