Baseball Has

Unlooked-for graces, beyond being
Coached in, almost too quick for the eye
To spot and be fastened as by
The double-play ballet, gymnastic
Shoestring catch, or shortstop,
Deep in the hole, off balance,
Whipping the runner out with but
A single catch-whip motion. The batter
Is such I have in mind, Tom Tresh,
For instance, who, poised to thresh
The air and loft the ball
To share for a while the wing-loose life
Of small birds buzzing the park,
Struck out with a tremendous
Cut that had his body
Corkscrewed utterly round so that,
To keep himself from falling, he must
Prop himself with the bat,
Figuring for a moment as
As a tripod with one wooden leg,
And, then to tax the art of the possible,
Catch with unthinkable legerdemain
His falling hat.