The Steal
Todd Wolbers
Signal from shady dugout to first:
Finger-to-elbow-hat-chin-hat-chin-hat-tip-of-nose-eye—
The eye? The EYE! The indicator!—
Knee-and-point the green light
One extra heartbeat
Sidestep to starting block
Set
Thrower eyes The Look with a toss—
Slide back to bag
Reset
Careful shuffle to toe the edge
Lean
Dangling hands with twitching fingers attached
Eyes right then front, left then front.
The discarded hot dog wrapper ballet pauses mid-twirl,
Swiss time ticks and stops
An unfinished breath
Go
Screams scratched out by tearing wind,
Concentration and speed.
Strides catch up
As blockers close in
For the relay
Headfirst hand under
Slide
Tag down dirt sweep
Eyes wait on the dusty scrutiny
Of bloated napoleons.
Safe!
Signal from shady dugout to first:
Finger-to-elbow-hat-chin-hat-chin-hat-tip-of-nose-eye—
The eye? The EYE! The indicator!—
Knee-and-point the green light
One extra heartbeat
Sidestep to starting block
Set
Thrower eyes The Look with a toss—
Slide back to bag
Reset
Careful shuffle to toe the edge
Lean
Dangling hands with twitching fingers attached
Eyes right then front, left then front.
The discarded hot dog wrapper ballet pauses mid-twirl,
Swiss time ticks and stops
An unfinished breath
Go
Screams scratched out by tearing wind,
Concentration and speed.
Strides catch up
As blockers close in
For the relay
Headfirst hand under
Slide
Tag down dirt sweep
Eyes wait on the dusty scrutiny
Of bloated napoleons.
Safe!
posted by toddw @ 9:58 AM
2 Comments:
At 7:30 AM,
David Schaafsma said…
Wow, Todd! Posted another poem, snuck it in on me just when I thought the blog was all but dead. .. and maybe yr best poem!? Lots of cool language stuff goin on here, with yr characteristic sense of humor. .. Do you know Robert Francis' The Base Stealer? Google that and check it out. I used to teach that in high school. The perspective is different in yours, which is more omniscient. What I like is that it is tighter, with fewer words used to tell the story,like in "Tag down dirt sweep". Cool stuff!
At 1:04 PM,
toddw said…
I saw your comment and checked out The Base Stealer, from 1948, and that was cool! I see he uses "now!" "come on" "crowd him" where I have something similar in most ending stanzas. He doesn't have a conclusion, but that's implied. After all, he is the Base Stealer. Both work in the timing of it all. He has it all happening in an instant, where I see it as a series of stages: the sign, the lead, the throwback, the set, takeoff, the slide, and the call. His Stealer works with intimidation, where my Stealer also works in deception with signs and shifty eyes. His Stealer is very "cocky", where my Stealer shakes off his "cockiness" and nonchalant attitude in favor of focus after the pitcher checks him with a throw over. As you can tell by the last stanza, I don't care much for umpires. A necessary evil, I guess. Just ask Ron Santo about CB Bucknor. Check out this link: http://www.petitiononline.com/cbbuck/petition.html.
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