The Coach

by Ralph La Rosa


Glory be! After all our scrimmaging,
you still seem drunk from your applejack binge,
when sold to believe it was the smarter thing.
My motley team, please listen, and don’t cringe!

It’s no garden party now, so you cower,
lose mates to laziness, injury, weakness, fouls—
and the game is nearly half-way over.
Now what? Gonna toss in mea culpa towels?

Good news. We still control the ball and clock.
I’m putting in a new but promising player.
Kid’s an amazing talent, humble. A rock.
He could make a win the answer to a prayer.

Hell, it’s the fourth and final quarter. Bad news.
The chances for us winning look fruitless and few.
Those diabolic Reds blister you, Blues!
Isn’t the time for you to listen Now?!


Ralph La Rosa’s poetry appears widely on the Internet, in print journals and anthologies, and in the chapbook Sonnet Stanzas and full-length collections Ghost Trees and My Miscellaneous Muse.