Ten.One Thousand, Eight Hundred & Eleven

1. I forgot something.

2. Gratitude.

3. Just her and me today on the mats.

4. The chatter of birds layered over Schubert’s Swan Song D.957.

5. Just need to vacuum.

6. We get to the field just in time for someone to hand me the scoreboard before the game begins.

7. It only takes an inning for them to decide to move to other bleachers. Not sure what they thought it would be like to sit with the home team fans.

8. His second at bat. We’re down 2-0. The mother behind me says, “Come on, you need this.” “He really does need this,” I say. Crack. Hard ball high and fast down the third base line, if the wind blows it will go foul. “Stay in! Stay in!” Fair. He rounds to second, gets to third on an error on the throw to home. RBI double.

9. Wine on the deck looking out into the trees.

10. He stands in our doorway, uniform still on, so tall and so lean. I tell him I’m proud of him. That what we saw today is what we’ve seen in him since the beginning.