{"id":3778,"date":"2023-11-27T20:54:34","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T00:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/?page_id=3778"},"modified":"2023-11-27T20:54:34","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T00:54:34","slug":"solid-single","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/fiction-archive\/solid-single\/","title":{"rendered":"Solid Single"},"content":{"rendered":"

Solid Single<\/h2>\n

Kenneth Pobo<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mom wept when I came out to her sophomore year and said, \u201cI love the New York Yankees best.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was OK when I came out as gay, but the Yankees? Surely, I was kidding. She\u2019d take a bullet for any Cubs player. Each loss was a personal affront. In church, she played organ, and although I found church to be a bore, only going to placate her, I enjoyed when she hit the keys for \u201cDrinking at the Springs of Living Water.\u201d\u00a0 I didn\u2019t get the song. Isn\u2019t all water living? What would dead water be?\u00a0 I sang along anyway. I thought of asking Pastor Peterson, but he didn\u2019t like kids to \u201cpester\u201d him.<\/p>\n

Mom liked Jesus as long as she could make him into what she wanted him to be: an elastic Saviour. She liked that he could see everything that went on, a good way to keep an eye on me when I was out of the house. Even now, I feel watched by the Invisible. It\u2019s comforting\u2014and disconcerting.<\/p>\n

Jesus was kind of a Super Cub to her, one with a perfect batting average who also threw shutouts. As such, she felt he deserved her prayers. She often prayed that my dad would return to us\u2014even though she mostly badmouthed him and called him \u201cthe ne\u2019er-do-well.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember much about him beyond a picture of me on his lap on a red upholstered chair.<\/p>\n

Another losing season. More stomping around using language she would never use in any other circumstance.\u00a0 I go to college next year, Southern Illinois University, about 200 miles from home. She says I can come home on holidays, provided I never wear a Yankees shirt. I can bring home a boyfriend, but no hanky panky.<\/p>\n

I feel ready to risk. I\u2019m tired of sitting on the bench. It\u2019s time to come to the plate. I have to drink some water, see if it is living or not, take a swing, and aim for a solid single just over the infield.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Kenneth Pobo<\/strong> (he\/him) is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections.\u00a0 Recent books include Bend of Quiet<\/em> (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City<\/em> (Circling Rivers), Lilac And Sawdust<\/em> (Meadowlark Press), and Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia<\/em> (Ethel Press). His work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Asheville Literary Review, Nimrod, Mudfish, Hawaii Review<\/em>, and elsewhere. @KenPobo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solid Single Kenneth Pobo   Mom wept when I came out to her sophomore year and said, \u201cI love the New York Yankees best.\u201d She was OK when I came Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5131,"featured_media":0,"parent":1301,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3778"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4348,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3778\/revisions\/4348"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/welter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}