Remembrance

Remembrance

Carol Mikoda

You taught me how to catch a high fly ball:
you took me to the back yard with our gloves.
You tossed the ball straight up with all your strength.
You coached me, “Put the glove up! Watch the ball!”
You laughed at me when I was scared to look,
but then I looked — the ball came smashing down;
my glasses ripped into my eyebrow. Blood
dripped down my cheek; my eyes wide in surprise
were wet with red as I lay on the ground.
You laughed and cried and drove me to St. Joe’s.
The stitches healed. The scar is up there still,
unnatural parting of my right eyebrow.
 
You say I could forget you if I tried,
but every mirror shows that you were here.

Carol Mikoda, a retired educator, is the author of two chapbooks, While You Wait, and Wind and Water, Leaf and Lake. Her third, Outside of Time, will be released in the fall of 2025. Her work appears in many literary journals. She lives near Seneca Lake in New York State and has strong attachments to clouds, trees, water, and music. Like many of us, she played softball in high school gym classes, but as an adult, she played on a corporate women’s softball league team for one fateful season.

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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