{"id":9624,"date":"2009-09-30T09:06:26","date_gmt":"2009-09-30T13:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9624"},"modified":"2015-05-12T07:39:31","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T11:39:31","slug":"speaking-of-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9624","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThese people don\u2019t appreciate what they have: time to go to ball games.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stadium Traffic<\/strong>
\nby Daniel Donaghy<\/em><\/p>\n

\nYou’re on your way home
\nwhen a thousand cars
\npour onto Broad Street:
\nthe ball game’s over.
\nNo one’s going anywhere soon.
\nIt’s mid-July: eighty and humid.
\nYou smell like all the crappies in the Delaware,
\nwear the ache of dock crates in your back.
\nYour buddy lost two fingers tonight
\nto a jigsaw: boss said go home early,
\nstay late tomorrow night.
\nThese people don’t appreciate
\nwhat they have: time to go to ball games.
\nYou get out among blaring horns
\nand hustlers hawking T-shirts,
\nwalk the yellow lines like a tight rope,
\narms out for balance,
\nall the way to the corner and back.
\nBroad Street still as a parking lot,
\nwound tight as a fist.
\nYou pop the trunk, fish a beer
\nfrom your cooler, and pound it.
\nBack in your car, the radio’s
\nrecapping the game:
\nyour team pulled one out
\nthey would have blown last year.
\nYou’ve blown the last year working
\nnights while your lady works days.
\nNight work means bad lighting,
\nand you’ve had enough close calls.
\nYou’ve had enough overtime.
\nYou’ve had enough.
\nSomething has to give.
\nSomewhere in the distance a dog
\nis barking, a husband is coming home.<\/p>\n

\n