Ashes Poetry

Play starts too soon,
too soon play starts.

Check pads, bat, box ‘n’ gloves
are where you last left them,
stretch legs, arms, tendons
and tie up laces again.
Re-adjust eyes to the light,
roll-up sleeves not too tight,
hitch up your whites
but try to forget
how play ended last night
for today’s the deepest of breaths
that flutter by -
- nervily.

after original ‘If I were a bell’ Frank Loesser, Guys & Dolls, jazz version Miles Davis