On Losing Gracefully
Matt Phillips


The little boy from the neighborhood
who frequents the red railway station
to sum the numbers on the boxcars
has died an experiential death.


His friends, the brave & ambitious
youngsters of the Whitcomb Brewers,
no longer walk along the train-tracks
balancing bats upon their noses.


But still they gather each Sunday
in the field just past the gas station:
the new pitcher, they say, is quiet
& the one who loved him most.