E.G. Green from Dugout Anthology by Michael Ceraolo

E..G. Green

This was my baseball nom de plume:

E for Eliza, Green my maiden name

(I survived three husbands, but they aren't germane

to this poem so they won't be mentioned here;

you can look them up if you're interested)

For a decade I was the official scorer

for the Chicago White Stockings of the League

Except for Mr. Spalding, who hired me,

no one, not even the League president,

knew that E.G. Green was a woman;

it was amusing to be sitting

with the players' wives during games,

undercover, so to speak

And it was even more amusing

to hear them, and later, their husbands,

kick about an official scoring decision;

sometimes they even asked my opinion

about the correctness of such decisions!

Michael Ceraolo is a 61-year-old retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet who has had two full-length books (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press; 500 Cleveland Haiku, from Writing Knights Press) and several shorter-length books published, and has a third full-length book, Euclid Creek Book Two, forthcoming from unbound content press.