Among the Stars (for Thom Ross)

By Bob Stanley

When I was 8 we stood in practice side by side
Fred hit flies long after it was dark
(Dad told me he had a plate in his head
from shrapnel – the war – our manager)

Straining to see those balls he hit high in the night
we never caught the Seals that year
though forty years later I still remember
waiting, in the darkness, for something hard to find.