The Tinkerer: Reckoning

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 The Tinkerer: Reckoning


Like that pile of scrap, so many things

he wants to become, but never graduated

from being the utility guy he was

in college ball, a cleat firm

at each position, love refusing to let

him become an expert.

When he finds himself 

in the splits he tries to trust the ache

is not a tear but a long-coming loosening

like a too-tight tendon. In the mirror

he can still see himself there, 

spitting seeds and stretching 

down the left-field line, wondering 

who he’s going to be 

today and exercising his trust

there’s still a solid spot for such fluidity 

in the line-up card

tacked over the bat-rack.


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