Dear Mr. Rose:
even though you told me
to get lost
when I asked you
for your autograph, politely,
at Shea Stadium
when I was a teenager,
I still hope
you are enshrined
in Cooperstown someday,
because having more knocks
than Ty Cobb
or anyone else
is almost
as spectacular
of an achievement
as my mother
teaching herself
and her parents
how to speak, read
and write English
as a first generation
Italian American,
in a chippy game
of cultural assimilation
where there was
no seventh inning stretch.
About Joey Nicoletti
Joey Nicoletti is the author of four poetry books and four chapbooks, most recently Boombox Serenade (BlazeVOX, 2019) and Counterfeit Moon (NightBallet Press, 2016). His Pushcart Prize-nominated work has appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Drawn to Marvel: Poems from the Comic Books and Poet Sounds: An Anthology Inspired by The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. He teaches at SUNY Buffalo State.
