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Todd Matson


Whalers Field The neighborhood gang found a field with weeds taller than the tallest kid, and they saw there a diamond in the rough, claimed it as their own, ‘cause finders keepers, and they mowed the field flat, cleaned up trash, sticks, rocks, filled in crevices, ditches and pot holes, fashioned a diamond, landscaped a pitcher’s mound, built a backstop and bleachers, marked off a homerun fence, named it Whalers Field in honor of all the baseballs to be whaled out of the park, and the gang played ball, whaling homeruns and grand slams, stealing bases around the diamond, stealing hearts around the neighborhood, playing double-headers, going into extra innings, until the bulldozers came to steal Whalers Field. The gang watched bulldozers destroy the pitcher’s mound, bury the diamond, plough up the infield, turn the outfield into mounds of dirt, because someone in a hard hat saw residential housing there. That is when the umpire shouted one last call: “Play ball!” And the gang played all day and late into the night, going into many extra innings, whaling dirt clods at bulldozers and hard hats, until the game was rained out.
Todd Matson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. His poetry has been published in The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling and Soul-Lit: A Journal of Spiritual Poetry. He has also written lyrics for songs recorded by a number of contemporary Christian music artists, including The Gaither Vocal Band.
 
 
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