i wrote this poem for Al Kaline.

I doubt you noticed me.

I doubt there's still the square I drew at the rear of the duplex on Cooper St.

on the bricks softened by rain. I thought I was you. I doubt, where I walked 

as a child and threw the rubber ball for hours at the rectangle of

thick beginnings under the volume August with dandelions growing

and when the air was so very  hot.

I doubt you saw me with my dad, little one darker than night, as you

returning from a broken collar bone hit a home run in the left field seats. I doubt

you heard my screams  of excitement as my peanuts fell to the

concrete steps.

we were nourished, vaulted; our love and adulation thrown

on the banks like dying fish under the overhang at old Tiger Stadium.

It was hot and dad had wore his short sleeve, shirt.

I had the glove I was breaking in. But I doubt you noticed. 

Reviews

[Robert Trakofler]

LoL... "Right fielder ms. Dana Rushin... batting 3rd!" I don't know but I think it has a nice ring to it:) I bet that water softened brick remembers you tho:) I grew up loving baseball too not so much anymore the trials of having one of the worst owners in baseball coupled with being from a smaller media market and the fact that we have become the NL farm team has taken the away the savor from me:/ But I do remember the "we are family" teams of the 70's with Pops (Willie Stargell) today players are just a commodity and team and player loyalty isn't even in the equation anymore takes a lot away from the game for me:( LOL but I bet you looked so cute with that glove under the overhang next to your pop:)

[h d e rushin]

I thought about what you said bad about team loyalty. And it is true. But the spirit of the game is our helpless assertion that our loyalty is sobering. I mean, I had no banners on my bedroom wall because where we rented the landlord prohibited nails of any kind. Todays players don't remember when kids, without smart phones or cybernetic analysis, just loved the look of green expanse or clamoring crowd, dropped peanuts and turnstiles. They too are in denial of a child's random possibilities that some don't even bother to sign autographs anymore...Thanks for remembering with me my friend....when the "game" meant something special...dana

[Travis Gibson (poetic h..]

It's these moments of admiration that show us how big the universe can be, while simultaneously giving us the desire to be just as special. At least, that's what happened with me. One of my recent regrets in life, is that I didn't get a chance to see Kobe play in person. I was too busy following his lead to realize he wasn't a forever thing. This was an inspiring piece... Well done!

[h d e rushin]

Kobe died too fast for honest grief my friend. There has to be some utility, some honest process since grief, as it turned out, always examines the missed opportunities. A wife lost her husband and child. A little sister lost her big sister. That was missed opportunity enough for me I guess.
I saw him play once at the Palace in Auburn Hills when Shaq was on the team with him. They totally destroyed my Piston team winning by , at least, 30 points. Kobe had 30 points himself as I remember. See what I mean? All we can offer is an understatement......thanks travis...dana

[Travis Gibson (poetic heroics)]

You are correct, so many things and emotions spun wildly around that, and still do... the world was blessed to have experienced all that he was.

[Gee]

Had to Google him, most of us Brits are either football, soccer, or rugby nuts, me, I'm both. Love Liverpool FC, love England rugby team.
My two sporting heroes, both LFC players, are King Kenny Dalglish and Stevie "G" Gerrard, the latter dragging his team almost single handedly at times to glories that should not have been theirs.
As for being noticed, I sometimes don't get that at home !
Love your writing even if often it goes straight over my head.
Hope you are keeping well.

[h d e rushin]

I am well, and thank you Gee. Yes, worlds apart but poetry brings us together...When something goes over my head I think it's a good thing. I've actually watch rugby since they (can you believe it) show some matches here in the states since the coronavirus has suspended most, if not all , American sporting events...It's exciting, to say the least, I just don't understand the scoring. It looks to me that the biggest guy always wins the scrum....I like that.....dana

[Gee]

Lol, mostly. Tis very technical is the scrum even though it looks like a load of "fat" blokes having a pissing competition.

[John the Baptist]

My God, someone else remembers Al Kaline! Not that many can say that anymore.

[h d e rushin]

Kaline was actually still relevant working as a team adviser and instructor at the Tigers spring training facility in Lakeland, Fl. If you love baseball, as I do, you love old time baseball where there was no DH, no infield fly rule, no sabermetrics, no long relievers, no Tommy John surgery, no dome stadiums, no automatic intentional walks and no crying, lol. Kaline represented the game and society where the full weight of all decisions was on you. Thank you John for remembering one of my sports heroes. Were running out of them.....dana.

[Corset]

when I was before the age of realizing girls had different parts than boys, I fancied that I was David Cassidy, dressed in the hip huggers and the wide white belt, wore my hair in a shag and tried to duplicate the dimple when I smiled at the likeness in the mirror, my first real crush, but I don't doubt that he never noticed lol. I loved this one on so many levels Dana.

[h d e rushin]

thank you dearest....and I've missed you terribly....stay safe.

[Corset]

please do the same :D

[Beccy]

A lovely, lovely poem, so gentle, so full of longing, which is a sentiment that many can relate to.

So much of what we are, goes unnoticed, and many of our dreams and aspirations remain forever unfulfilled, but the skill to articulate this in such a profound way, is a rare gift indeed.

Such good writing here, it made me feel quite emotional.

Beccy. X

[jacob erin-cilberto]

and again you have inspired...i just responded to your piece with a poem called "Bronx longings"
which I will post soon...thanks again for the inspiration, you seem to do that to me, a lot.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

He may have noticed and you never knew. You remind me of being at Yankee stadium in 1958, watching Mickey Mantle playing center field, and the thrill ....i know he never knew i was there and talking about him.
Old Briggs Stadium..home run ball park...one of the great old parks ...like old Comiskey which i had been to several times.
I was so glad Kaline got his World Series in '68---and Lolich was amazing winning three games and beating Gibson in the 7th...
Memories...and that overhang at the stadium...too bad they could stuff the stadiums like in taxidermy and save them....i remember we drove by the Polo Grounds and the Giants were playing...you could just see in through a slit in the side of the stadium..and could see a player or two.
and driving past Ebbets Field in Brooklyn..although never getting inside either place...wish I had gotten that opportunity...didn't see Mays play live until at Wrigley in 1970...and he was so past his prime, he could hardly throw the ball in from Centerfield...he was my favorite player ever...
I am going to get my glove out of its box, put on my NY Giant hat and go outside and play catch with the ghosts of the past. Also, had those rubber balls, my grandma would give me a quarter to buy one, then i would bounce it too high and it would up on the apartment's roof. My dad wouldn't let her buy me another. I think Al would have loved this.
thank you,
j.

[h d e rushin]

there's something in the human body that longs to communicate with the hero's of our youth. It's a sort of Eucharist, spiritual communion; a yearning to rejoice, I think ...My dad didn't like sports, but he knew I did, huddled in front of that 8 inch, black and white tv he bought me for my 18th birthday. Mom chided him and he decided to take me to a baseball game. .We didn't own a car, but we got on the bus and rode and rode until I could see, old Tiger Stadium coming into view. Kaline, coming back from a broken collar bone, hit a foul ball that landed just a few feet from me. Then on the next pitch he hit a home run. I had never been so excited in my entire life and probably wont be that excited ever again. Those old stadiums had so much character. Wrigley, Comiskey, Tiger...etc..They tore the stadium down in 2000 and for years people argued about what should go in it's place. Some said condo's and restaurants. But someone, perhaps longing for the old days, finally decided to make it into a simple softball field. When I drive past it, I get sentimental. You know Jacob, you cant get sentimental about condo's....lol...thanks for your wonderful mind my friend...dana