*

Ilan Mochari is the author of the poetry collection Playthings and the novel Zinsky the Obscure. Ilan’s short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Salamander, Hobart, The Louisville Review, Solstice, J Journal, Valparaiso Fiction Review, and elsewhere. His work has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes as well as the Derringer Award for crime fiction, and he has been the recipient of a Literature Artist Fellowship grant from the Somerville Arts Council.

Centerfield

Ilan Mochari

The white sphere in the sky is my focus,

its spiraling seams, its raised red stitches.

I chase the dirt-rubbed object as it swerves

in stifling, midsummer air. My frowning

hat brim blocks the sun’s slanting beams, cleats

dent lush grass, my mitt opens, trapping

the gravity-drunk ball in an instant’s whap—

a world of outcomes winnowed to a win

justifying the monomania of pursuit.

— Ilan Mochari