The Fear Of Blank Faces

I’m relying on sweepstakes

to bring me back my happiness

and the panic from future mismemories

to get this addiction under control.

Hence stepping into simulacrums of our house —

a giant cardboard box, a chicken coop —

as a preventative measure to make sure

I can still categorize all of my son’s birthdays

and in the way our city’s jagged steel buildings

are privately owned but spiritually public,

I walk along a route of long-demolished

ballparks, now serving as banks and

parking lots, and spray paint a white plate

at each approximated spot. I imitate the swing

of a ballplayer I do not know. I can only make out

my wife’s hair, waving in the stands.

KG Newman is a sportswriter who covers the Broncos and Rockies for The Denver Post. His first three collections of poems are available on Amazon. The Arizona State University alum is on Twitter @KyleNewmanDP and more info and writing can be found at kgnewman.com. He lives in Hidden Village, Colorado, with his wife, two kids and four dogs.