When you over-swing the plummeting cut fastball

When your writing circles around what you want to say

When your three best students erupt, “What homework?”

 

When you find the strike zone, and a bat is already there,

When the bat fragments fly farther than the ball itself,

When the ball soars above as you charge in from center field.

 

When your best sentence is an irrecoverable tangent,

When you are on a roll and your words sound like your father lecturing,

When you begin the conclusion, but there’s nothing left to say.

 

When your stomach churns at the fifth student paper on unrequited love,

When you take it personally that the class mis-reads your favorite poem,

When you fumble the explanation of what a preposition does.

 

When your explanation of the run-on sentence sounds like a run-on sentence  . . .

When you search vainly for a synonym for “despair”  . . .

When your manager waves to the bullpen on his way to the mound . . .

Failure is an option