Foul Ball

Before he was a prophet, Yogi
Moses played baseball and, one
dry Sunday morning, took his
catcher’s mitt out to Agamemnon
Field for newspaper stunt to
boost attendance in sleepy May
Cincinnati and, as baseball
thundered down to him on a
line from advertisement hot-air
balloon, circled, circled, circled
under the growing dot, like just
another high foul, and reached
out for the stitched horsehide.
Broke his hand.

Patrick T. Reardon, a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, is the author of nine books, including the poetry collection Requiem for David and Faith Stripped to Its Essence, a literary-religious analysis of Shusaku Endo's novel Silence. His poetry has appeared in America, Rhino, Main Street Rag, The Write Launch, Meat for Tea, Under a Warm Green Linden and many others. He has two poetry collections forthcoming in 2021: Puddin’: The Autobiography of a Baby, a Memoir in Prose-poems (Third World Press) and Darkness on the Face of the Deep (Kelsay Books).