Baseball in Israel

Baseball in Israel

By Josh Humphrey

The dirt at the end of the slide
is not the same.  And there is
a sigh of a sound like ancient laughter
over these games of men.
 
And the words are different here. 
I had to learn phrases so I could
argue with the umpires, but
the inflections are wrong,
 
I am always talking about my
place of power
and my instruments.
 
It is beautiful though when
the umpires confer with each other.
The crowd goes silent.
Stools are brought. 
 
They argue the safety of runners
with passages from Job, wondering
if man is at fault if he did not
ask to be born.
 
It is not our dirty game, not
the one I miss
sometimes.
 
But whenever I fly back
through the cold sand that wraps
the skylines in such mystery,
through the foreign face
 
of God, I catch the faint outlines
of the diamonds, our symbols,
our sacred stones laid out
in the timeless.
 
Even this far from words,
still the beauty
of conversation.

Josh Humphrey has been published in Lullwater Review, Paterson Literary Review, Lips, Journal of New Jersey Poets, Soundings East, Naugatuck River Review, and Oberon. He has forthcoming work in Streetlight and the Aeolian Harp Anthology. He works as a Library Director in his hometown of Kearny, New Jersey, a job that inspires much writing. He is a lover of books, albums, chocolate, and baseball, of course.

Jeff Brain is a retired public school teacher. You can find more of his art on his website or on Instagram.

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