the evolution of a white boy’s baseball cap

It’s all at the leading edge of the brim.

his first serious cap was too big,

its brim formed like the bottom lip

of a female Ethiopian hellbent for romance.

Its evolution:

In the beginning:

the brim is unaltered.

then:

a slight downward arc is applied.

then:

a deeper arc

until:

the brim’s arc is readjusted to its original Ethiopian plain.

but wait.

there’s more.

from this original position the brim is then bent to a severe triangular shape,

but as I recall, this radical approach lasted for one brief season before

common sense prevailed and a return to the slight downward arc of the brim

was reincorporated.

but in May, a Saturday morning of anticipation prior to choosing-up,

a black kid came to the park unannounced, while visiting relations

at 1021 Bedford, third floor, where whacky Nicky Nazone once lived;

a right fielder like Jackie Jensen, fast like Gene Stevens, but

black like "Pumpsie" Green, and the brim of his cap

was flat as a pancake like the Ethiopian lip and stayed that way

through 12 innings into sundown.

the following week, he slipped out of Fall River to parks unknown.

mind you. this happened in May of 1953! ––– and I was there.