it used to be, then it wasn't, and now it is again

it used to be, then it wasn't, and now it is again

 

 

 

a Brooklyn summer

apartments now

where the Dodgers used to play

 

Ebbets Field a cadaver

buried in a Flatbush cemetery of meaning

New York a flashy array of high-rise headstones

 

Coogan's Bluff

has a sign

but no Giants to grace it

and Willie's cap never flies off

when the Polo Grounds is ripe for razing

 

the old players are grazing

on mountainsides hitting two seamers

over an iron fence

 

the boys of summer are the old men of winter

now

 

there was lightning in a bottle

until a Yankee became a carpetbagger

and the South watched its cotton balls

slugged over a rotting plantation

 

and 1947 happened

and number 42 happened

and everything almost became equal

until it wasn't

 

again

again

the Yankees kept hitting

but those other soldiers went out west

 

and the Brooklyn summer 

turned a scorched eye

to a California winter

 

and a pastime became a past time

until all the players

wore the same uniforms

and fans only saw the numbers on their backs

not the color of their bats

 

Willie's eyes are bad now

and Jackie is long gone

but still celebrated

even though the streets to the stadium

 

are paved with separation

and we are all sliding into second

backwards.

 

 

erin-cilberto

1/12/2021

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

If I recall correctly, the Dodgers were playing at Ebbets Field when they won their first World Series in '55. A few years later they and the Giants both decamped for California. This one is about time and change and how some things don't change. I wonder how those old players would react to the age of Covid-19. As Yogi put it, "It ain't over 'til it's over!"

[jacob erin-cilberto]

You got it...as the Brooklyn Dodgers they were 1-8 in World Series play...'55 they won,'56 Yanks got their revenge.
Dodgers and Giants left after the '57 season....
I spent my early baseball years in the fifties in the Bronx...being a yanks and giants fan and hating the dodgers.
I still hate the dodgers and love the yanks...although the cubs became my favorite national league team...but i still like the Giants because Willie Mays was my favorite player in my life time.
Now with Hank gone...Mantle gone and Clemente gone...we only have Mays left...
but yes those days...Robinson's first couple years in the majors...the racism from his own team.
groundbreaking times but really sad times that things ever had to be that way in the first place.
and some things started to change and just didn't change enough.
I don't know how those players would react to today's game.
and as Yogi also put it..."if the fans don't want to come out and watch the games, nobody's going to stop them"
Now the fans have no choice....odd times we are in, and a very strange baseball season.
thank you, John,
j.

[Rico X]

this is simply brilliant. the way you made your statements was masterfully crafted. Using America's game baseball as a back drop against gentrification and the call for equality is simply brilliant. Below are my favorite lines!

and a pastime became a past time
until all the players
wore the same uniforms
and fans only saw the numbers on their backs
not the color of their bats


Willie's eyes are bad now
and Jackie is long gone
but still celebrated
even though the streets to the stadium
are paved with separation
and we are all sliding into second backwards.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you for your kind words, Rico.
j.