Ella Black by Michael Ceraolo

"Ella Black"

I was the Pittsburgh correspondent for Sporting Life

during the one season of the Players League

There were a good many then who didn't believe

a woman could write knowledgeably about sports

(I understand there are fewer of those now),

and I wasn't helped by headline writers' creations

that rarely coincided with my column's content

(I understand that hasn't changed at all)

But I proved the doubters wrong,

and having done so, I vanished

without any further trace in the historical record

Nobody knows if Ella Black was even my real name

If you're a fan of the game,

you should know who I am,

even if nobody knows who I was

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.