Spring Training

By George Perreault

For Joe Crowley

sun skin wind same as walked
Uncle Joe’s service, the world
still dressed gray and brown

but almost as if soft rain
had tumbled down the night,
a gate swings open and you

among the throng tasting
not yet a bud or shoot and sure
winter could drop by again

but only to visit, so sit with
your brothers, oil the stiff leather,
catch in the backyard, fresh

ball whiter than sea gulls, no
outs or errors on the page,
pepper and fungoes laughing

these friends forever so far
undefeated, the season seeping
inside and rising like Eden

George Perreault retired after several years on the faculty of the University of Nevada, much of it under the leadership of Joe Crowley.  He has served as a judge for the state Poetry Out Loudcompetition, is a grateful consumer of National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) activities, and humbly admits that his wife has received twice as many NEH grants as he has.

Photo credit: Nevada Humanities/Susan Mantle