#DiamondSpeaksInRunes
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Team Flame nine fires in the game
Some batters arrive at the plate carrying heft. Some bring grace. Some survive enough innings to become myth. They’re all here and part of Team Flame. Nine batters in burnings and meditations, spirits and fires, spectacles and labors, longings and memories. They are dangerous poetic beautiful. Bodies on fire, smoking bats. Arms on fire, blazing…
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TEAM FLAME a Hermit Crab essay in a baseball lineup card
Nine At-Bats BATTING NINTH Number 68, Pitcher, FLAME THROWER (Coaches note: don’t expect much, a hit is a miracle) I’ve still not seen the burning bush, but I do see small flames, even miracles from STORYTELLERS: All those listening. All those walking. All those meditating. All those making music. All those riding bicycles. All those…
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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
The prophets received pillars of fire; Moses the eternal flame. I only get UV warnings and dehydration. But revelation always begins in these emptying’s and abrasions, so voided and cut, I’ll aim for the pitch when it comes in hot and burning. That’s what team flame does, we’re nine batters chasing heat.