During the hotter half of the year when
healthy enough to play, we watch Aaron
Judge’s truck axel arms dwarf and lever
I guaranteed my friend I’d do it within a year.
I must have been feeling my oats, as my parents said,
or flirting with the deadly sin of pride, as my teachers warned.
But wasn’t that the point? To defy my natural boundaries,
When the thunderclap was a cosmic crash, when it shook
the foundation of the house until the vibration rippled upstairs
to the room my brother and I shared,
we called it a strike.
Those nights it was all right
to be in league with Presbyterians,
Dad said. We always went along
In his country, hockey players never fought.
It was in his gait, the upright stride that made him
taller than his teammates bent fist first over
their work at this patchy puddle jump, this
hose-flooded slick chute muted by speckled light.
The afternoon sun falls across the whole family,
crowded along the deck like crows, peering down,
and lining the driveway as I prepare to fight
Watch a pine sway in gusts for an hour,
or even minutes: the subtle design,
nonchalant stretch and yawn,
belie its desire, a burst of shamrock
Sleep’s reject is running an hour or more
before it can properly be called morning.
At Gold Park, a young deer eats grass
near the edge of the playground.
It will be long gone by the time
of the regular joggers and dog walkers.