The Shoebox - Day 30

Dwight Gooden
P - Mets
#250, Topps, 1986

Be yourself, said every special
message of the waning 80s, and for
the most part I clung to morals
like a foam kickboard. But on
the backyard bump, I was Doc,
a Wacky Wall Walker fulcrum
of limbs and instinct. My folks
must have known--everybody knew
or assumed: he sold sensation
down by the E train and bought it
by the G. Still, Dad
minced oaths and belayed the sermons.
Not much to say yes to
at the bottom of our postwar
suburban circle, and I can remember
my hero where heroes should be,
between the lines.