Baseball
by Linda Pastan
When you tried to tell me
baseball was a metaphor
for life: the long, dusty travail
around the bases, for instance,
to try to go home again;
the Sacrifice for which you win
approval but not applause;
the way the light closes down
in the last days of the season—
I didn't believe you.
It's just a way of passing
the time, I said.
And you said: that's it.
Yes.
(from An Early Afterlife)
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