by Connie Post

I was told my father
played baseball in school
and “had an arm”
until he started smoking at age 13
and was expelled from seventh grade
for fighting

he had an arm
that reached across the kitchen table
and backhanded us

he had an arm
that reached beneath our skirts
and inside our pants

he had an arm
that extended
around the bend of the hallway
and into our messy rooms

I always wondered
if I was stronger
or faster
or even thinner
if I could have escaped that arm

these days
I spend time
on autumn afternoons
immersed inside the batting cages
oiling my mitt
warming up my shoulder

taking each
grease-tinged moment
and throwing it back

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Connie Post served as first Poet Laureate of Livermore, California Her work has appeared in Calyx, Comstock Review, One, Cold Mountain Review, Slipstream, Spillway, River Styx, Spoon River Poetry Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review and Verse Daily. Her first full length Book Floodwater (Glass Lyre Press) won the 2014 Lyrebird Award. Her poetry awards include the Liakoura Award, and the Crab Creek Poetry Award. Her newest book Prime Meridian was released in January 2020.