PAD Day 16: Come Back, Baseball!

I'm late posting my poem which I wrote last evening. The prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a poem with the title, "The Last ________", and (2) write a poem that goes "over-the-top" with effusive language to praise someone or something you love.  I started out with a draft of a poem that sarcastically praised our current president, but once I got that out of my system, I wasn't that pleased with the result. I don't think I went quite "over-the-top", but here is a poem about something I really love and miss (the subject of my last chapbook).

The Last of the Ninth

O Baseball, where are you?

Spring hasn't truly blossomed

till we've heard the crack of the bat

and the cheers of thousands in the stands.

But this invisible opponent wants us

to forfeit the season to fear.

You're made of stronger stuff, Baseball,

and I know you will return to thrill us

with a whip-snap double play, an ace

painting the corners to strike out the side,

our favorite slugger crushing one

over the center-field wall.

I miss the smell of ball park hot dogs,

the seventh-inning stretch,

the camaraderie of the crowd.

I'm tired of all the morbid statistics -

I'd rather follow batting averages, ERAs,

as my favorite team racks up wins

and climbs up the standings.

Hurry back, Baseball, my port in the storm.

I can only watch so many classic games

on TV before they get too old here

in my living room, where "safe at home"

means so much more these days.