"I'm seeing the ball really well this week,"
announces the star player,
finally connecting a bit
after a season mired at two-fifty,
and you as a fan, your team mired
below five hundred,
you mired in despair,
imagine telling your eye doctor,
"I'm seeing the chart really well this week."
Seeing? Seeing? Don't the lenses
of the eyes work the same,
yesterday and today? And you want to tell
that star player that maybe it is focus,
that maybe he should have tried
looking at the ball, and not at
the bleachers in right field
where he hoped to send it,
and you think once again
that baseball is a head case,
for player and fan alike,
but you and the player
have this moment of renewed hope,
he is seeing the ball again,
and you are imagining a surge
out of last place
and hope for next year,
and in this euphoria of renewed hope,
you imagine that other baseball fan
might decide to focus
and start seeing Iraq really well,
and the rest of the Middle East,
instead of keeping his eyes on
the bleachers in right field,
that "seeing" once again
will be a physical act of detection,
not mental self-deception.
— R.P. Ericksen (September 19, 2005)
Last updated: October 15, 2005