Always on second base…

As a young boy
standing in my front yard
that doubled as our diamond
perspiring after a game with friends
on the hottest summer day of August,
we were scattered to our homes
by a threatening storm from the west
mounting up as a wall,
sending streaks of lightening;
that first awed, then frightened,
and I was left alone
when a cold wind struck me,
froze me in my place,
standing on second base,
with a chill that shivered my skin,
and still does.