*

Patrick Cuff is a writer and editor by trade. He is a fourth generation resident of Somerville. One grandfather worked for decades as a railroad linesman in Davis Square (when trains ran past the Somerville Theatre) and the other worked as a Somerville firefighter. Today, he rides the Red Line and puts out fires when cooking in his kitchen.

Take 5

Patrick Cuff.

No baseball hitter ever sees

red-laced stiches

rotate mid-air, hung

fat and (waiting)

there and (waiting)

slung by pitchers

eyeing over leather and blinded

by mercies

four rows back

in protective niches

a baseball player rotates

thumbs and fingers

and thumbs and fingers and

chews the fat slung by fans cursing

mid-air, red-faced and in stitches

words leathered and eyeing

callouses flung with fury

in arcing curvatures—

in bullets and in pitches

— Patrick Cuff

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Doug Holder, 25 School St.; Somerville, MA 02143
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