Bernie’s Card

Bernie Williams’ rookie card leans, 
upright, against the spine of books

by poets whom, I doubt, ever went on
to hit a ball over a fence.

The card is inside a hard plastic cover,
rescued from years spent in the back pocket

of my son’s mud-stained pants, during long games 
playing for his beleaguered High School team,

until he arrived to the painful realization
that he would not play first base for the Yankees,

his heart, by then, done with loving the game 
enough to surrender to the will of a diamond.

JUAN PABLO MOBILI

Juan Pablo Mobili was born in Buenos Aires and adopted by New York. He has published extensively in the United States, as well as internationally. He’s a recipient of several Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. His chapbook Contraband was published in 2022. In 2025, he was appointed Poet Laureate of Rockland County, New York.