Joseph L. Dahut is an MFA candidate in Poetry at New York University whose work has appeared in The Drake, Tail Magazine, and The Sand Canyon Review, among others. Joseph lives in Brooklyn as an educator, poet, and fly fishing guide.

Final Pitch

If the grass could give
a song to me,

I’d plant an ear
along the seed

as each blade
sang the gospel

of mosquito heat,
the standing water infield

of my youth,
the clay stains

that never broke loose
from the number twenty

jersey I called home.
I tug at the stitches

spilling over the colon
on each waving button,

the only distraction
from pleading hands

asking permission –
(the ball).

When coach rose
from spotty brick dugout,

every word was wind
throttled in red dirt.