SOLSC March 30: Baseball’s Opening Day

            I know, it’s March, too cold for baseball, in the 40s. But the Yankees played San Francisco (interleague already?) in the Bronx this afternoon and won 5–0. Aaron Judge hit a home run, what else is new?

            It’s 77, in Miami where the Mets are playing the Marlins. After four innings, the Mets lead 1–0 on a sacrifice fly. (And I have to leave now to go to a storytelling event in Brooklyn, How to Build a Fire.)

            I love baseball. But I hate the TV ads for gambling apps. I really really really hate them. Their disclaimers about “gambling responsibly” are pure sugar coating. These companies make their profits on irresponsible gambling, on hooking in even smart people. For a book only partially on this topic, I recommend Kiese Laymon’s Heavy: An American Memoir. You barely notice the hints at gambling until near the end.

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I’m participating in the 16th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 30 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!

30/30: Golden Shovel #15.2

source: Shortage of Small Chips Is Causing Big Problems

He doesn’t foresee how the shortage

of resources, of outside help, of

inside information will nibble small

chinks in his defenses. Poker chips

become his only asset, but that pile is

an illusion of strength, causing

enemies to bolster their evidence, their big

lie, which only begins his problems. 

 

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Here is how I am using Terrance Hayes’s Golden Shovel poem format, as proposed by the Sunday New York Times "At Home" section, for 30 Poems in 30 Days during National Poetry Month.

 

Take a newspaper headline that attracts you.

Use each word in the line as the end word for each line in your poem.

Keep the end words in order.

Describe the story that the headline is for.

The poem does not have to be about the same subject as the headline that creates the end words.