If you’re lucky…if you’re blessed you can discover joy at any time…in any place…I remember the day I found it…of all places…upon a child’s face.
I remember we were far removed from fortune and from fame…sitting in the stands at a child’s softball game.
I watched this little girl strike out…on three pitches…without ever swinging the bat…I watched her smile all the way to the dugout and I thought…how’d she find joy in that?
Next time up she got a hit and that same smile crossed her face…the same smile as she took off and landed safe on second base.
She played the field wearing that same smile and immediately I thought…that smile appears on her face when the ball is hit…whether she catches it…or not!
She played with the same joy when she did well…when she made the perfect play as she did when she made an error…when she threw the ball away.
I remember watching the game that night and becoming happily aware…her joy wasn’t in how well she did…her joy was just being there.
And mine too…as I thought to myself…how lucky that I came…and how blessed to discover the face of joy…at a child’s softball game.
Categories:
softball game, joy,
Form: Rhyme
It's Saturday in suburbia U.S.A.
Lawn mowers buzzing, chores underway
Planting and pruning, nourishing flowers that will bloom
To announce and brighten the month of June
Contented cats perch on fences high
Loftily appraising the collared dogs led by
To the dogpark, filled with Frisbees and tennis balls
A meelee of fur, a Fido free-for-all!
Teenagers holding signs - for a small fee, to support their JROTC
They will clean your cars - from grimy to shiny!
Kids on bikes and boards fly down the steep hill
Heedless of danger - transported by thrill
Farmer's markets - trendy veggies and jams, artisanal pleasure
Yard sales - for pennies on the dollar, you could discover treasure
At the local high school field, the softball game starts
Everyone participates - everyone plays their part
As evening folds in, grills are fired up
Smokey meat smells waft by - time to sup!
In suburbia U.S.A
It's just another Saturday
Categories:
softball game, community, culture, day,
Form: Couplet
I'm warning you:
don't come weak
I'm telling you:
don't come lame
I play on the hard diamond,
so don't come with no softball game
I'm a hard-nosed ballplayer,
I don't mind some dirt being kicked in my face
'Cause I'm gonna come back hard charging,
and with fear that smug look is gonna be replaced
Natural born gritty truth-teller,
that's what I am, that's who I be
Step aside if you're in my base path;
if you don't wanna be in a world of pain,
then you better start doing the math
How much time do you have
before we collide when I get there
How much impact can you take
when I send you flying feet first up in the air
I play on the hard diamond,
so don't come with no softball game
I play to win every time always,
so take a number and state your name
Should I ever be down,
and it looks like for sure I'm gonna lose
There's no quit in me, no sir,
got a tough-as-nails ego that don't easily bruise
So take your best shot,
take your very best swing
Show me what you got
on this hard-to-hit offering
So take your best shot,
'cause you're down to your last swing
You've been losing a lot
to this flame throwing hard diamond king
Categories:
softball game, allegory, allusion, baseball, sports,
Form: Rhyme Royal
ERITREAN SOFTBALL GAME - 1959
One painful hot, and Eritrean day,
More happenstance, than anything we'd planned,
Our softball field, was moulded in the clay
Of Africa, the time forgotten land.
Behind a chain link fence, they came to see,
We sailors of the Ocean having fun.
While they, ten hundred, maybe more, than we,
black faced and wringing sweat, laughed at the sun.
Anticipation we'd not heard before,
Rose to their high, just when the ball was hit,
And made us give our best, of ship and shore,
Because we knew they were enjoying it.
How sad to know, we've lost the friends we'd made,
Down through the years, for lack of any shade.
© Ron Wilson
Categories:
softball game, africa, arabic, black african
Form: Sonnet
Every moment I pray,
That you have an extra day,
An extra words to say,
And an extra softball game you can play.
I still want to see your pretty smile on your face.
Do you remember the peanut butter slap?
In the bus coming back from a track meet we would rap.
You would make me laugh so hard I swear I was going to have a heart attack.
When I was your fake bf at the Madill track meet because them Long Grove's boys wanted to mack.
That was way way back.
Raven aka shawty I love you
And forever in my heart-Mario Perez
.
Categories:
softball game,
Form: Epic
why can't i be like any other kid
with a loving family and has nothing bad they did
i just want to be loved by someone like my mom
who would take pictures of me at my high school prom
why can't my mom just let me in
and watch me at my softball game and tell me i'm going to win
why can't she wake me up in the morning to go to school
tell me i look pretty and that everything is cool
that is where i want her at
but i guess it will never be like that
Categories:
softball game, motherme, me, high school,
Form: Rhyme