In a Pickle
In a Pickle
—after Norman Rockwell’s The Young Lady with the Shiner (1953)
Nancy Santos
Benched after beating boys
at baseball behind the backstop,
I’m in a pickle with the principal,
swinging for the fences
of fast-pitched principles.
So here I sit
with an unpicked
switch, sporting Casey’s
smile of Christian charity,
interrogating with no shame
the game’s irregularities,
restricting me from facing
the mound because
I pee sitting down.
Too much testosterone
testing the dress
of my wherewithal,
pulling my pigtails
with perpetual gall,
I heckle from bleachers
to pastime gatekeepers,
pressured in equal measure
from a jury of my peers,
preachers pleading
for a chance at bat,
promising stapled lips
in exchange for a pinch hit.
Squaring my stance
in the batter’s box,
balking at constant
gimme-all-ya-got
shortstop shit-talk,
I stare down scarlet seams spinning,
low & outside swinging,
sending my shot to centerfield,
racing up the first base side
of the degrading diamond,
chastising chalk lines
counterclockwise,
slamming second,
rounding third, headed home
in a league of my own,
sliding face first,
dusted in determination’s dirt.
Like Ty Cobb fighting a fan,
I tackle the catcher
sneering behind a mask,
eating his cleats
with conviction’s teeth,
his leg’s line drive
delivering a shiner.
Nixing niceties in ninety-feet
increments, I complete
the three-sixty, the umpire
screaming SAFE.
Put that math on my epitaph,
but I’m not serving some scant
offering of sincere sorry
on the home plate
of apology, a sacrifice play
better than a pop-fly.
Nancy Santos writes poetry inspired by art, film, history, and music. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming with Riza Press, Write Under the Moon, Dark Poets Club, Carmalarky, Moon Tide Press, and on Substack at Vinyl Veined Verses. She can also be found at nancysantospoetry.com, where she provides updates to her current work in progress, Before We Locked the Doors, a poetry collection inspired by Norman Rockwell paintings. She’s still mourning the Seattle Mariners’ loss of Ken Griffey, Jr.
Andy Lattimer is a gay guy who lives in Southern California. He makes comics, most of which are about baseball. You can read them on his website, andylattimer.com
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