Joe “Crayon” Frost, Shortstop
Crayon
Nicknames, external input
Internal storyline
Personal baggage, valise
designer chic
Crayon
Wax
Hue
Paper and pigment
Remember earthen smell
Mushroom
musk
Gateways
Youthful color creation
memory
Schoolyard, recess, swings
After Thursday baseball practice
Junior year
High school
Worrying about grades
The drafts
Serve
country?
Go pro,
minor leagues?
Might not make it,
Might die
Walking home, stop at old elementary
school playground
Painted lines, paste white thick on blacktop
Get a job?
Stopped, nobody around
Swing set
College,
me? Are you kidding?
Flick legs, arch back
Again, sky rotates with institutional architecture
Kicked feet into tanbark
Sliding feet reveal blue paper cylinder
Crayon
Brake feet
Kick up
bark like infield dirt
Sliding
into third
Light blue flecked with rust dust flakes
Cornflower
Too light,
no power, scouting report
Cornflower blue, must be from a bigger set of crayons
The ones the rich kids had
Never even heard of that bloom, transparent blue, stained
glass window
Like a
church telling a story
Stuck the crayon in jeans change pocket
Transfer, like turning two,
Into rear pocket
Uniform pants
Friday,
baseball
Three for three
Late afternoon Spring sun beams
Long loose
limbed kid on mound
Throws
pretty straight
Fastball,
clean base hit rightfield
Go opposite
way, stay with pitch
Curve
one-two count
Single in
the hole
New guy takes mound
Reliever,
some pimpled sophomore
Knew all he
had was southpaw heat
And that
cooler than a popsicle
First pitch ripped
Right center easy two bags
Scouts in stands nod to each other
Maybe cross-check this one
Shows tools
Caught
Cindy’s eye too
Meet after
game wink
Cindy
Fooling around
Found the crayon
“Cornflower,
what’s that?
Shouldn’t they
be yellow?”
Heated up soon after
New sweat under my flannels
Found second base under cotton blouse
“Pretty lucky, that crayon,” cooed,
soft ear
tickle, her breath cool
Whistling home
Giddy
Two doubles today
“Son, scouts called,
hour ago,
where you been? Stain your pants?”
teenage stammer,
“Crayon.”
