Tag: #EarthStories
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TEAM FLAME, A Hermit Crab Essay in a Baseball Card
Nine At-Bats in a Lineup Card BATTING SIXTH Number 97, Center Field, SHAPESHIFTER (Coaches note: the sneakiest batter in the lineup) Walking behind him in New Delhi, he turned and laughed at me. His brown buttocks visible through threadbare pants, a thrush testing the limits of cover. He turned into an alley. Fifteen seconds later…
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TEAM FLAME, A Hermit Crab Essay in a baseball lineup card
Nine at bats. BATTING FIFTH Number 77, Third Base, DESERT DUST (Coaches note: all hit or miss, takes a big swing) Sitting on rocks, I recalled Gary Snyder’s line: “The closer you get to real matter — rock, air, fire, wood — the more spiritual the world is.” Under the tree and above the hard…
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TEAM FLAME, A Hermit Crab Essay in a baseball lineup card
Nine at bats CLEANUP BATTER Number 14, First Base, Antelope Ranch (Coaches note: power and contact) Motorcycling headlong into July’s hot wind, I was nearly there when I turned onto a dirt road and rumbled fifteen miles over boulders and ditches strewn with whitewashed bones: antelope skeletons, scattered ribs, skulls bleached by sun. I was…
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TEAM FLAME, A Hermit Crab Essay in a baseball lineup card
Nine at bats BATTING THIRD Number 5, Third Base, Coal (Coaches note: the best hitter) In the lineup’s three hole, the hitter must have power and make contact. In the summer season of my life, when I was full of velocity and ambition, I was that power aiming for contact whenever heat met me and…