This week’s poem is a model of economy. It offers two simple sounds – the “whoosh” and “snap” of a baseball being thrown from a son to a father. It lets us fill in the rest – the game of catch likely being played and, considering the title, the long history of games played by fathers and sons. In saying very little, it says a whole lot.

David Stankiewicz lives in Cape Elizabeth and teaches writing, literature and ethics at Southern Maine Community College. His first book, “My First Beatrice,” was published by Moon Pie Press in 2013.

Fathers and Sons

By David Stankiewicz

The “whoosh”

of the hardball

approaching,

the snap

as it stings home

in my mitt.

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc is a poet who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2018 David  Stankiewicz. It appears here by permission of the author. For an archive of all the poems that have appeared in this column, go to www.pressherald.com/tag/deep-water.