Poetry Sunday: Analysis of Baseball by May Swenson

As September fades into October, our thoughts turn to...baseball. Well, truthfully, for some of us, our thoughts have been on baseball for the last six months. Those were fun times, but now it gets serious.

It's been a remarkable season for my favorite team, the Houston Astros. They've set a new club record for wins and several of the players have set individual records of various kinds. In addition to all that, they are just a fun team to watch. For those of us who suffered through those years of 100+ losses, the last three seasons of 100+ wins have been sweet indeed.

And now we come to the playoffs where anything can happen and usually does and all of those 100+ wins mean nothing. Or at least very little. Baseball is a game where yesterday's hero can be today's goat and vice versa. But there is always another game tomorrow, a chance for redemption. Until there isn't.

May Swenson understood.

Analysis of Baseball

by May Swenson

It's about
the ball,
the bat,
and the mitt.
Ball hits
bat, or it
hits mitt.
Bat doesn't
hit ball, bat
meets it.
Ball bounces
off bat, flies
air, or thuds
ground (dud)
or it
fits mitt.

Bat waits
for ball
to mate.
Ball hates
to take bat's
bait. Ball
flirts, bat's
late, don't
keep the date.
Ball goes in
(thwack) to mitt,
and goes out
(thwack) back
to mitt.

Ball fits
mitt, but
not all
the time.
Sometimes
ball gets hit
(pow) when bat
meets it,
and sails
to a place
where mitt
has to quit
in disgrace.
That's about
the bases
loaded,
about 40,000
fans exploded.

It's about
the ball,
the bat,
the mitt,
the bases
and the fans.
It's done
on a diamond,
and for fun.
It's about
home, and it's
about run.


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