Balls

Cricket : eight ways to get out –
the most common caught off a direct hit, just
as in baseball, or softball
second most common, bowled
when the ball strikes the wickets –
the three poles behind the batsmen.

The farmer had been a pretty good athlete in his time
played cricket for his province.
I asked him about it
he was modest ….
needed prompting to extract names.
“Yes, I did play against him,”
him – the leading player of his day
“ what was he like – fast, very fast.”
The farmer said,
I didn’t see the first ball,
or the second, or the third, or many in the first 20 minutes
wasn’t sure what to do
so faked poor timing –
he said the bowler fell for it and
began angling the ball for a catch, a catch behind,
“ a straight one would have bowled me.”