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"The Ball of Earth and Heaven"at Shea Stadium

By Richard Marx WeinraubPosted Tuesday, May 22, 2007, at 6:50 AM ET

Click here to listen to Richard Marx Weinraub read this poem.

Dad's explanation of the ticking "perv" in me:
the irritation of the seventh nerve in me.

My twitching left eyelid and lower right form one
huge eye: the station of the God I serve in me.

The #7 train beneath my seven hills:
the agitation as the synapse swerves in me.

I contemplate the end—the seventh seal—and note
my off-key nation's anthem throws a curve in me.

Uranus, seventh from the sun, is streaking towards
my orbs—a Haitian bringing out the verve in me.

The ball of Earth and Heaven bats till Kingdom come
ejaculations of my father, Irv, in me.

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Richard Marx Weinraub is a professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico. Wonder Bread Hill, his "sonovella" of 140 sonnets, was published in 2002.

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