The Abominable Baseball Bat

Here's a bit of an odd duck poem. A knuckleball in the mix as it blends bad hitting with vampires. But X.J. Kennedy is a rather prominent poet who apparently is sincerely a baseball fan or just poking fun at the game. I'm inclined to believe the former. And even though he wrote this poem many years ago, I still think he's spot on when attributing this affliction to the Dodgers lineup.

So if in the next day or so, Manny's bat turns around and bites him in the neck after yet another strikeout or if Andre Ethier muscles a swing foul that snaps the lumber in two and both ends of the wood sprout wings and fly off into a lazy Hollywood Nocturne, then I'll know Halloween has come early to Dodgertown.

Enjoy. And Go Blue. Viva Charlie Haeger, the next great Knuckler!

The Abominable Baseball Bat

by X.J. Kennedy ©

Published: The Phantom Ice Cream Man (1975)

I swung and swung at empty air

And when I heard the umpire

Behind me shout, "Strike three - you're out!"

My bat turned to a vampire.

The whole team had to pry it loose.

Poor Ump looked sorta flat.

Now ever since, my bat and I

Walk every time we bat.

You can learn more about X.J. Kennedy by clicking this link:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/634