The Shoebox - Day 23

Roger Clemens, AL All Star
RHP - Red Sox
#394, Topps, 1988

One look in every portrait:
resuscitation doll, like life
outside the chalk is plastic
and purgatory. Even convex
lenses fear the action shot,
horseshoe of Cope and a duelist's
red glare. Tell yourself hate
is the only way focus turns
to physics, in spite of Doc's grin,
Bird's dyspeptic worry, Tom's factory
punchcard every start. Some

bodies once folded,
unfurled, same as yours or
faster, without running rich
on fossil fuel. The Texas boy
in you won't believe it.