Sandlot

"Baseball stories resemble wartime tales.
Some are told as they actually happened.
Others are told as we think they did.
Regardless of the specifics, all of them are true."
-- Dan Ewald

It used to be
that 7 year-olds
could slip out of the house,
just after dawn
leaving behind tells
(milk spilled on the table)
(dirty bowl in the sink)
for still sleeping parents,
who would know
(baseball bat missing)
    (glove too)
that their son
was doing nothing
other than spending
a glorious summer day
as it was meant to be spent --
shirtless
under the sun
on a makeshift ball field
with all of the time
in the world.