Are you crying? There's no crying in baseball.
         Manager Jimmy Dugan to outfielder Evelyn Gardner
         in A League of Their Own. 1992.
       

         By the way, you should know that every time
         I wear a baseball cap while working, I
         Ask John, Guess who I am?
         He says, I don't know- who?
         I say Ethelbert:

                  - A letter from Reetika Vazirani, July 3, 1991.

STRIKE I.

The year Sammy Sosa

Corked his bat is the year

You took your life.

We all felt cheated

You like our hero standing

In the batters box alone.

STRIKE II.

Why do poets

Try to change the rules of the game?

Why is death America's pastime?

STRIKE III.

Sometimes I fear the blues

Is a curveball breaking

Near my head.