Poem for June 2011

Poem for June 2011

The trees are finally in full leaf, and the Cleveland Indians have the best record in major league baseball. We dare to hope, and the stadium fills. Not so fast, warns the poet, it’s early in the season.

            --Meredith Holmes

Shakespearean Baseball Sonnet #105

by Michael Ceraolo

Let not the phenom be shown idolatry

After an admittedly great first game;

Save alike all the songs and praises be

Till he is more deserving of such fame:

Though having a dazzling array of pitches,

Hype may make him too big for his britches;

The specter of injury always lurks

Hidden and ready to gum up the works.

And let us not forget the other side,

Hitters stung in their professional pride

To make necessary tweaks at the plate.

So let us go slow anointing him great:

Stuff, makeup, luck have often lived alone,

Which three have but rarely kept seat in one.

Michael Ceraolo, a resident of Willoughby Hills and self-described civil servant, is the author of one full-length book, Euclid Creek (Deep Cleveland Press) and several chapbooks. “Shakespearean Baseball Sonnet #105” is from Ceraolo’s Baseball á la Shakespeare.