Sometimes Opening Day Is in July

Sometimes Opening Day is in July 
and everyone wants to know why
but the Gods of Baseball will not say 

sometimes they play to near empty stadiums  
bleacher mannequins and knock-off crowd hums 
locker rooms stocked with Purell drums    

sometimes the W.H.O. is on first
masked baserunners steal second and third 
and the Toronto Blue Jays can't go home

sometimes guys are on IL for quarantine
and Black Lives matter to entire teams 
only maybe made up later with 7 inning double headers  

"What the hell is this?"
we ask the Gods 
but they don’t say shit 

just like the time they took 948
games for revenue/salary debate
including the one to decide a champion  

(Montreal title aspirations benched  
Expos fan conspiracies in half-French
eventually move to new Nation(al) in Washington   

We tell the Gods our calendars are set
162 contests with no roulette 
training in spring World Series October 30 6:08pm    

yet sometimes there's a long delay  
and sometimes the end is cut away 
and sometimes they take a chunk right outta the middle 

like the week to dwell on tower attacks  
snooping around dugouts for traces anthrax 
and new patriotic anthems a stretch for seventh innings 

or like the other time they went on strike
or like the other time they went on strike
or like the other time they went on strike

Gods, you put Ted Williams in a fighter plane twice 
minted silver pennies paid a D-Day price 
while the league pressed on with dwarves and the deformed 

and Warren G Harding's death halted things once 
like when Christy Mathewson got gassed on Western Front 
in times of Spanish Flu... look, none of this is new! 

damn the Gods! 
they’ve always been doing it
no explanations justifications or apologyizations  

San Francisco-Oakland series quake 
rumble flames and bridges brake 
fault lines at Candlestick no jumping escape  

And oh how the Gods make it rain... so fat and sharp
under lightning make em roll out wet tarp 
cancelled cancelled cancelled cancelled cancelled 

why Gods of Baseball?
we ask all appalled 
like a strike we thought should not have been called 

"you should know by now" 
"you should know" they say 
"you should know by now" they say

September 2020, Cornville AZ