Trade Deadline

Trade Deadline

By James Scruton

Illustration by Jason David Córdova

So many still waiting
for the other cleat to drop,
front offices busy
doctoring their pitches,
GM’s running accounts full.
 
Late innings tick down
to some bombshell deal.
Sluggers step into the box
as if into a magician’s cabinet,
ready to disappear.
 
From the stands, every out
seems a farewell.
Even routine fly balls
whisper gone.

James Scruton has published two collections of poetry and five chapbooks. His baseball poems have appeared over the years in Spitball, Elysian Fields Quarterly, and here in The Twin Bill, as well as in anthologies of baseball writing.

Jason David Córdova lives in Puerto Rico as an illustrator and painter. Some of his art can be seen on Instagram at @jasoni72. You can visit his shop on Red Bubble.

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