Poem-A-Day

This Poet

by Howard J Kogan 

 

The ball was hit hard and the boy in the outfield

drifted back and back onto the road, keeping his eye

on the ball, trying to get his glove under it. 

 

He’s in the middle of the street when a truck

rounds the corner too fast, heading towards the boy.

Someone shouts, No! just as the ball thumps

 

into the fielder’s glove, so as the truck speeds by

the boy is stepping onto the curb, arm high,

showing us he’s caught it.

 

That’s the kind of God this poet wants,

the kind that saves foolish children and

speeding truckers from themselves,

 

because we’re all fools, going out for fly balls

or running across a road, focused on one thing,

unaware of the ghost makers around us.

 

That’s why we need poets who get

God to do what God was hired to do,

create a better world for all of us.

~ 

Howard J Kogan is a retired psychotherapist and active poet who lives in Ashland, MA. His latest book of poetry, "Before I Forget" published by Square Circle Press is available from your local bookstore or Amazon.