pinned duck balling

clipper captains roll shot
to divers rigging-strung overbow.
muggsy uncle robbie delbert frock
transform iron foul flesh
into echoing cedar
smooth bright polished wax
and then
a most modern bowlery
smallball sanctuary

duckpins at sunrise
(louis shecter opened a 100-lane bowling alley on charles street south of lafayette in 1937)

union park

in a dirty dreary ramshackle place
muggsy uncle robbie ee-yah wee willie kingpin big dan
heinie steve frank boileryard
sadie bill kid bert count duke
stub old wax figger
bunt chop run sacrifice impede impose slug argue
in front over around and through
giants beaneaters phillies grooms spiders pirates and colts
kelly smells precisely every ball out in the high grass
but sits in the dugout panting

from center field at sunrise
(the baltimore orioles, the baseball dynasty of the 1890s, played at union park between 24th, 25th, hunter, and barclay streets)