Ode to summer

The Base Stealer

by Robert Francis

Poised between going on and back, pulled

Both ways taut like a tightrope-walker,

Fingertips pointing 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, tingle, teases,

Taunt them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,

he's only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,

Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate--now!

Image by churl