Published In: Slant (1995)

Out of a windmill windup,
the whipcord arm grooves a dartball
on a string past the hopeful, waiting
at the plate for a miracle.

It might have been the bee ball,
    the looper,
        the drooper,
            the jump ball,
                    the wobbly ball,
        the two-hump blooper,
                the bat dodger,
                    the famous hesi-
            tation pitch,
    or the radioball ("You hears it,
            but you never sees it").

Joe DiMaggio couldn't hit him.
And said so.

Babe Ruth never faced him.
Lucky Bambino.

"I'm Satchel," he said,
"I do as I do."

"Father Time is Coming" by J. Patrick Lewis