For Tara the Baserunner

I love the way your spirit slides with reckless abandon
at full speed
taking out shortstops without the least hint of malice.

I love the way it overruns every base
challenging life’s outfielders to try to pick it off,
daring infielders to make the wild throw
its exuberance makes inevitable.

I love the way it takes the extra base while everybody else is hesitating,
and the way it rounds third without the least indication it could stop
anywhere short of home plate.

I love the way it gets dirty without thinking about it
and the way it bounces up and runs again ready to slide
at any opportunity.

I love that it runs the way my spirit ran
when I was fifteen going on forever
and the running itself was more rewarding than the score.

I love the way it runs because it always runs that way
even when I am not there to see it,
and always ran that way
even when you were too far away to see,
and will run that way
when you are older than I am
watching it run your daughter around the bases.

©WILLIAM JOHN WATKINS