Baseball

Baseball

for Thomas Ferebee

All I ever wanted to do

was play baseball,

but they took my bat

and gave me a plane

called after someone's mother.

They took my photograph

and gave me goggles to wear

so I could look my grandchildren

in the eye

and tell them

what I did

that day.

Perhaps if I had not worn the goggles

I would have seen the little boy

on the tricycle he had been given

for his fourth birthday,

the old man who had stopped

to look at his watch

at a quarter past eight

on an almost perfect day.

Perhaps if I had

seen these things

I could look you

in the eye.