Runner

Runner

By Ron Wallace

Illustration by Jeff Brain

In dreams I drive the ball
          above the glove
of a leaping second baseman
toward the gap in right-center.
          And I separate
in midstride
from the wood, polished smooth
from a thousand swings
and made tacky with pine tar.
 
I feel thighs flex,
feel my calves become pistons
          as I round first
dark hair flying like a battle flag
in a cavalryman’s charge.
 
I watch the outfielder
cut the ball
          plant
                   pivot,
and fire the leather pellet
toward the base where I am diving
into third base
          headfirst
                     hard,
a cloud of red clay dust rising
to obscure the black 15 on my back
before a soundless collision
          of flesh and bone
echoes in the silence of sleep.
 
I rise,
standing one foot
          on third,
                    out of oxygen
tagging up to make a mad dash
for home
as the bone white sphere
          floats
                    toward left,
                              shallow,
too shallow to give me any chance
but regardless,
I know I will run.
In dreams I always run.
I never hit the ball over the wall
and trot like Mickey Mantle
first to home.
No
I must run.
I run from tigers
          or wolves
                    or winter
or maybe myself, but regardless,
I run.

Ron Wallace is an Oklahoma native and currently an adjunct instructor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, in Durant, Oklahoma. He is the author of eleven books of poetry, five of which have been finalists in the Oklahoma Book Awards. “Renegade and Other Poems” was the 2018 winner of the Oklahoma Book Award for poetry. He is a multiple “Pushcart Prize” nominee and has recently been published in “Oklahoma Today”, “Concho River Review”, “San Pedro River Review”, “Borderlands” and a number of other magazines and journals.

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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