Middle School
Please help! 40 points!It was in an empty lotRinged by elms and fir and honeysuckle.Bill Corson was pitching in his buckskin jacket,Chuck Keller, fat even as a boy, was on first,His t-shirt riding up over his gut,Ron O'Neill, Jim, Dennis, were talking it upIn the field, a blue sky above themTipped with cirrus.And there I was,Just off the plane and plopped in the middleOf Williamsport, Pa. and a neighborhood game,Unnatural and without any moves,My notions of baseball and AmericaGrowing fuzzier each time I whiffed.So it was not impossible that I,Banished to the outfield and daydreamingOf water, or a hotel in the mountains,Would suddenly find myself in the pathOf a ball stung by Joe Barone.I watched it closing inClean and untouched, transfixedBy its easy arc before it hitMy forehead with a thud.I fell back,Dazed, clutching my brow,Groaning, "Oh my shin, oh my shin,"And everybody peeled away from meAnd dropped from laughter, and there we were,All of us writhing on the ground for one reasonOr another.Someone said "shin" again,There was a wild stamping of hands on the ground,A kicking of feet, and the fitOf laughter overtook me too,And that was important, as importantAs Joe Barone asking me how I wasThrough his tears, picking me upAnd dusting me off with hands like swatters, And though my head felt heavy,I played on till duskMissing flies and pop-ups and groundersAnd calling out in desperation things like"Yours" and "take it," but doing all right,Tugging at my cap in just the right way,Crouching low, my feet set,"Hum baby" sweetly on my lips."How I Learned English,"Gregory DjanikianWrite a short paragraph in which you evaluate what makes the poem effective and give your opinion of the poem overall.