Monday, April 01, 2013

TAKING THE MOUND

by Mick Murphy


Thomas Eakins
Baseball Players Practicing, 1875
Watercolor on paper
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design


​                For Robbie

​You tidy up,
​as in a boys room,
​moving the earth around.

​Dirt and small bits of stone
​the rakes passed over.

​Sins of omission if
​left untended can cost you
​the game.

​Your pitcher’s crease
​is lamb white, your heart
​the same.

​Yet unmarked by the spikes
​of the enemy.

​Your arms are supple and
​ready under home
​cotton whites.

​Your glove new leather
​oiled and shaped the night before.

​You love our summer game.
​But they come, the people from
​the world, and you have to pitch to them.


Mick Murphy is astudent of Amy Holman at the Hudson Valley Writers center in Sleepy Hollow New York. A former business executive, he has studied and written poems for many years. His work looks at personal and spiritual issues and the intersection of these with the life of his generation. He lives in the Hudson Valley of New York. He also writes about sports.