Archive > Vol. 20 no. 2

Toon Tellegen

Translated from the Dutch by Judith Wilkinson

To a Baseball Game with Walt Whitman

I went to a baseball game with Walt Whitman,
he taught me what to see and what not
and when to get up
and shout that the umpire was blind
                                   and the second baseman as well,
he explained to me what a double play was
and what I should sing in the seventh inning
and that winning was more important than losing 

we were sitting in the bleachers,
he caught a home run for me
and kept slapping me on the shoulder

and when we went home
he said:
now I will show you how to write …

Walt Whitman, why didn’t I go with you then?