The Base Stealer

Poised between going on and back, pulled
both ways taut like a tightrope-walker,
Fingertips pointing the opposites,
Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball
or a kid skipping rope, come on, come on,
Running a scattering of steps sidewise,
How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases,
Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,
he's only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,
delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate - NOW!!!

by Robert Francis

kevin marquez