Home Run
by Michael Dylan Welch
First published in Vines #5, November 2021, page 8. Originally written on 6 July 2010 at Seattle’s Safeco Field during my son’s first baseball game (he was six years old).
Seattle Mariners 2
Kansas City Royals 3
third inning—
my six-year-old counts
the passing airplanes
the home run rises
a few rival cheers
crack of the bat
drowned out
by the beer vendor’s yell
the batter’s lunge
before changing his mind—
smell of shelled peanuts
shadows now
halfway up the bleachers
sixth inning—
my son asks when there’ll be
another home run
During the game, a foul ball landed in the left-field bleachers about 20 feet from us (a little beyond third base where we were sitting). That play made the evening news and we could see ourselves in the crowd. A thrill for my son to see himself on TV!