Why Won'T You Throw Me the Ball-- An Ode To the Boys In My Classroom
Every day at recess I play catch with the boys
No matter what they can’t throw where they’re told
Just one good pass
To bend over that many times, I’m getting too old
I throw them a pass
And it slaps off their hands
When they do finally catch one
They celebrate like a Packer leaping into the stands
Tayden Picks it up
He throws with all his might
The ball leaves his hand
And sails 20 feet to my right
I stroll over
And pick up the errant pass
Why can’t they throw me the ball
Maybe we should go over this in class
McNutt drops the next pass
The sun was in my eyes is what he’ll say
I don’t know how that’s possible
On such a cloudy day
With a wind up McNutt gets ready to throw
This won’t be pretty it won’t be neat
With a scream and all his strength he chucks the pass
It bounces 10 yards in front of me and rolls to my feet.
My aching back
It can’t take much more
I’m only 39
Why am I this sore
Now it’s Davon who is in my sites
If he would only catch it I could lose these ball drop blues
He looks good as he runs for the pass
But now he’s on the ground, tripped over his own shoes
With a smile and a chuckle
He picks up the ball
I think he knows it’s a football and not a grenade
It sails way over my head and bounces off the wall
I throw the ball to Brian
He reaches for it wearing his single glove
I can’t believe it, he caught it
Thank the heavens above
This is it, I think he will throw me a direct hit
Oh, man tricked again, he stopped to tell a story and talk
How disappointing
I suppose I could just take a walk
Why do I do it
Why do I play
Tomorrow I jump rope
I’ll keep trying they may throw it to me someday
Copyright © Jacob Jones | Year Posted 2018
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