Ball Park Frank

June 14 2019

They play it in a park.

Not an arena, where gladiators might contest.

Or a court,

its boundaries set by ruled lines,

mercy tested

by hard high-gloss floors.

Or even a ring

with it blood-stained spit-flecked mats

that stink of manly sweat.

But a sanctuary

of manicured grass.

Succulent green

under crisp stadium lights,

keeping at bay

the grim concrete heat

of the encroaching metropolis.

Where the high outfield wall

is merely notional,

and a home-run could very well go

to the ends of the earth

before rolling to a stop.

And where there has never been a clock,

so the game takes

as long as it takes,

and life can wait,

and age is hypothetical.

Where grown men play

hug and dance and sulk,

grumble under their breath

while averting their eyes from the ump.

And where the sudden eruption of cheers

lifts to a full-throated roar,

spilling out

onto dark empty streets.

Startling a passer-by

from his plodding reverie,

reassured

that all is well

with the hometown team.

A ballpark figure

is a merely approximate one,

like a weakly hit ball

dropping into no-man's land,

that vast expanse of cool grass

no 3 men can cover.

And a ballpark frank

is a squirt of hot-salty-fat

from a soft white bun,

bright yellow mustard

dribbling down the chin

of the boy with the too-big glove.

Like the one you remember

in the treasured ball-cap
the real players wear;

the boy who grew too fast

and threw badly

and is up well past his bedtime.

Every once in a while, the compulsion to write a baseball poem overtakes me. I resist, because they're indulgent, often repetitive, embarrassingly elegiac, and filled with an unbecoming nostalgia for what likely never was. Nevertheless, every once in awhile, I also succumb!

After finishing this, I suspected that “”Ball Park Franks” might be a brand name, rather than a generic descriptor. Google informs me that indeed it is. Oh well. I'm sure they won't object to the free publicity. ...That is, if a squirt of hot salty fat is good publicity!