The Trouble Ball: Poems

The Trouble Ball: Poems

<p><strong>“[An] important work . . . inspiring its readers to greater human connection and to keep fighting the good fight.”―<em>The Rumpus</em></strong></p> In this new collection of poems, Martín Espada crosses the borderlands of epiphany and blasphemy: from a pilgrimage to the tomb of Frederick Douglass to an encounter with the swimming pool at a center of torture and execution in Chile, from the adolescent discovery of poet Omar Khayyám to the death of an "illegal" Mexican immigrant.<br /><br /> from "The Trouble Ball"<br />       <em>On my father's island, there were hurricanes and tuberculosis, dissidents in jail<br />       and baseball. The loudspeakers boomed: Satchel Paige pitching for the Brujos<br />       of Guayama. From the Negro Leagues he brought the gifts of Baltasar the King;<br />       from a bench on the plaza he told the secrets of a thousand pitches: The Trouble Ball,<br />       The Triple Curve, The Bat Dodger, The Midnight Creeper, The Slow Gin Fizz,<br />       The Thoughtful Stuff. Pancho Coímbre hit rainmakers for the Leones of Ponce;<br />       Satchel sat the outfielders in the grass to play poker, windmilled three pitches<br />       to the plate, and Pancho spun around three times. He couldn't hit The Trouble Ball.</em>