Night Game

Night Game

By John Peter Beck

A clean hit hops over
the right field rosebush, rolls
past between the trash cans.
 
Eric rounds second wide,
pursued only by
the lengthening shadow
 
of the mailbox.
The mothers and fathers
in the picture window box seats
 
stare up from their TVs,
walk to the glass and tap,
mouthing silent words
 
of school and sleep.
Megan on the mound takes
signals from her catcher –
 
fastball, slider, curve.
It doesn’t matter what she pitches
as the hour cloaks the throw,
 
making the resulting crack of the bat
one lucky hit, stretched out
by fielders overrunning the ball
 
newly invisible, lost
in the folds of evening.
Danielle, the home run hitter,
 
responds midrun to the call
for math, bath and bed.
All the players
 
scatter like shadows
under the headlamps
of passing cars.
 
Night closes down
the ballpark, returning the field
to darkened blacktop,
mere pavement.

John Peter Beck is originally from a mill town on the banks of Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He is a professor in the labor education program at Michigan State University where he co-directs a program that focuses on labor history and the culture of the workplace, Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives. His poetry has been published in a number of journals including The Seattle Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Louisville Review and Passages North among others.

Michael C. Paul is an illustrator, writer, and historian. He grew up outside of Kansas City, has moved around a bit over the years working as a history professor, illustrator, and occasionally an editorial cartoonist, and now lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter. For more, visit https://mikepaulart.com or @MikePaulArt.

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