Bouncing Tiptoe Like a Dropped Ball
Here is another poem by Robert Francis that I love. It is called The Base Stealer and is a beautiful way to describe the decision of stealing a base.
Poised between going on and back, pulled
Both ways taut like
a tightrope-walker,
Fingertips pointing the opposites,
Now bouncing tiptoe like
a dropped ball
Or a kid skipping rope, come on, come on,
Running a scattering
of steps sidewise,
How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases,
Taunts them,
hovers like an ecstatic bird,
He's only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,
Delicate,
delicate, delicate, delicate - now!

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