Joseph L. Dahut is an MFA candidate in Poetry at New York University whose work has appeared in The Drake, Tail Magazine, and The Sand Canyon Review, among others. Joseph lives in Brooklyn as an educator, poet, and fly fishing guide.

Final Pitch



If the grass could give

a song to me,

I’d plant an ear

along the seed

as each blade

sang the gospel

of mosquito heat,

the standing water infield

of my youth,

the clay stains

that never broke loose

from the number twenty

jersey I called home.

I tug at the stitches

spilling over the colon

on each waving button,

the only distraction

from pleading hands

asking permission –

(the ball).

When coach rose

from spotty brick dugout,

every word was wind

throttled in red dirt.