HOME RUN

Teetering between triumph and disaster

the pitcher, in brief supplication,

swings up his arms

then propels, with hope and hate,

his challenge to the crouching batsman.

As, with unseeable speed, a cobra

strikes its fangs into helpless prey,

the batter's arms uncoil and

the bat, in arching descent,

flashes across the plate,

arrests in mid-flight the twirling orb

and stuns it with venomous fury.

Then, like a fatally stung rabbit,

the ball streaks away in blurred flight

until it loses breath

and drops among the multitude of cupped hands

which, like the mouths of imploring eaglets,

open to be fed.

Its charge spent, the bat is tossed away

and skims across the grass

as the batter, fist raised and

with an exultant grin,

moves at the pace of suppressed joy

around the bases

and trots haughtily home.