When I was a regular American boy
interested in baseball
I was looking at
baseball hats in a store.
A salesman approached me
and started talking about a game
that played on the television above.
One of the players struck out
and the salesman told me,
when he was in college,
I asked when that happened
and he said about
10 years ago.
The salesman said
he ruined his knee
and ended up
never playing in the bigs,
then looked back at the screen.
I watched him watching the game,
I think I was 11 at the time,
and amongst those hats, I thought:
this guy has spent my entire life
selling hats and telling stories
to middle school kids, just
to be near something
he can’t do, or
be.
I decided, there
how important it is
to know when something has been
and move on.
_
Ed Makowski is a poet and writer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is presently in school at UW-Milwaukee for journalism and works as a writer at a nature center. He used to use the pen name Eddie Kilowatt, but around the time fatherhood happened grew out of that. He likes to ride new bicycles or old motorcycles to places he hasn't yet been. Ed has had poems published other places, but nobody cares to read a silly list. More of his work can be found at www.edmakowski.com.
interested in baseball
I was looking at
baseball hats in a store.
A salesman approached me
and started talking about a game
that played on the television above.
One of the players struck out
and the salesman told me,
when he was in college,
“I hit a towering,
450-foot home run
off that guy.”
I asked when that happened
and he said about
10 years ago.
The salesman said
he ruined his knee
and ended up
never playing in the bigs,
then looked back at the screen.
I watched him watching the game,
I think I was 11 at the time,
and amongst those hats, I thought:
this guy has spent my entire life
selling hats and telling stories
to middle school kids, just
to be near something
he can’t do, or
be.
I decided, there
how important it is
to know when something has been
and move on.
_
Ed Makowski is a poet and writer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is presently in school at UW-Milwaukee for journalism and works as a writer at a nature center. He used to use the pen name Eddie Kilowatt, but around the time fatherhood happened grew out of that. He likes to ride new bicycles or old motorcycles to places he hasn't yet been. Ed has had poems published other places, but nobody cares to read a silly list. More of his work can be found at www.edmakowski.com.
