Under Green Light

Under Green Light

By Michael Begnal

The game
is played under green light,
the night game—
 
from far away
liquid emerald emanation
bubbling above the stadium
open to the sky;
 
zoomed in, inside it,
the green intensifies
the holiness of the game
as the pitcher
meditates
on the mound,
energy sinking to the belly
down around up the back
to the crown of their head
just under the button
of their hat—
 
the batter seems relaxed,
on a streak
where the ball appears
in slow motion, hovering,
as if seeking only
to be over
the plate,
belt-high
 
but in the green light
of midnight
the game is to the death,
 
the organ plays a slow dirge,
melted notes,
 
the pitch comes in screaming

Michael Begnal is author of the collections Future Blues (Salmon Poetry, 2012) and Ancestor Worship (Salmon Poetry, 2007), and the chapbooks Tropospheric Clouds (Adjunct Press, 2020) and The Muddy Banks (Ghost City Press, 2016).  His work has appeared in Notre Dame Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Aethlon, Empty Mirror, and in the anthology Thinking Continental: Writing the Planet One Place at a Time (University of Nebraska Press, 2017), among others. He teaches writing at Ball State University.  www.mikebegnal.blogspot.com

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