The Opening Day
Richard Blevins
ISBN 978-1-881471-71-4 $16.00 164 pages
I watch the lightning close up,
from my skyscraper room.
I’d planned to visit Addie’s grave,
but the storm spoils my last morning in Toledo.
At home, I discover the valet’s directions
to his plot folded in my pocket.
Rain check.
Ray Caldwell is struck by lightning
on the mound at League Park, recovers--
and gets the last out for the win…
…Before each pitch, Ed Walsh hides his face
behind the glove (maybe doctoring the ball)…
All on a flash drive in my pocket.
Richard Blevins’ Fogbow Bridge: Selected Poems, 1972-1999 was published by Pavement Saw. He edited two volumes of the Charles Olson/Robert Creeley correspondence for Black Sparrow. His dissertation is on Will Henry. He lives and teaches, in western Pennsylvania, with his wife Martha Koehler and their two daughters.