AM Dial

AM Dial

Hunter Spurlock

A gravel voice through AM static speaks directly
to me. The far-right lane – no hurry – west bound
on I-20, irrationally nostalgic for a time and place
as long gone as any left field moon shot. Phantom
pains in my stomach, a piece of soul I’ll never grow
used to having amputated. Why I drive, and listen
to a voice speak the language of a boyhood spent
under southern skies, stadium lights like stars in
constellations only we knew names of. The radio
a time machine, transporting an old kitchen table
with the old man, listening, loyal and opinionated.
Invested – emotionally and verbally – in the details.
Bloops and steals. Balls and strikes. Unimportant
particulars defining this life’s best summer nights.
 
The collective voice may cry about the three true
outcomes and beg for more three letter acronyms,
attempts to measure what he could hear over an
AM dial. October may be on the line every night –
fifty-four times a game, seven nights a week, all
summer long – in downtown Atlanta cheap seats.
But me? I’m cruising west into a sailor sky sunset
thinking Pop would have loved cussing this team.

Hunter Spurlock received his MFA from the Etowah Valley MFA program in 2025. He is a graduate of Kennesaw State University and teaches English in West Georgia. His previous, and forthcoming, works have been featured in The James Dickey Review, Call me [Brackets], Unfinished Conversations: an anthology, and various other online publications. Instagram: Hunterspurlock.author

Jeff Brain is a San Francisco-based baseball artist and poet. He was a featured poet at the first two National Baseball Poetry Festivals, and now serves on the Poets Committee of the NBPF held each May in Worcester, MA.

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