First Game
First Game
Faith-Anne Bell
for Isaac at age 9
His father almost a year dead—
his father who hated baseball
almost as much as football.
But now he’s gone,
& I am remaking our world.
I take my son to his first game—
Orioles vs Dodgers.
His eyes are wide.
He sits at the edge of his seat.
“I just wanna see a home run!”
& he cheers. He yells.
Autumn is creeping into air,
but it’s still summer—
Still time for hotdogs, skinned knees,
& baseball.
I answer his questions & teach him
how the the game is played.
He catches on fast.
He roots for Orioles,
but he is envious of Shohei Ohtani.
“Can’t we keep him?”
He whoops for a home run & realizes
it isn’t his side that’s winning.
“Let’s go Os!!”
I see the Baltimore in my boy.
We lose, but months later he is still
talking about that game.
We go to Monster Trucks
the week before a snow storm.
He looks at me & smiles,
“Oh I like this OK. But I prefer
my quiet & peaceful baseball.”
Faith-Anne Bell resides in Maryland. She has recently had her work in Pen In Hand, Gaslamp Pulp!, Prudence Dispatch, Superpresent, & Blue Heron Review. She has poems in the anthologies I Haven’t Made It Home Yet (Procrastinating Writers United) & A Poet’s Directory of Wild Things (South Broadway Press). Faith-Anne’s first chapbook is Grieving Him (Bottlecap Press). She can be found reading her poems at open mics around Baltimore.
Caitlin McPhee is a Blue Jays fan and illustrator from Calgary, Alberta. Thank you Jordan Kormos for your continuous support. See more markers at @onewarmline on Instagram.
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